Fair, 52°
Weather sponsored by:
Sponsored by:

Can we talk?

Conversation class instills confidence in non-native speakers

Jesse Hollett
Posted 5/3/17

ORANGE PARK – If there wasn’t a signup sheet at the door that said it was a class, it would be hard to believe that anyone in the room had come to learn.

Tutors and students sat in a circle, …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Don't have an ID?


Print subscribers

If you're a print subscriber, but do not yet have an online account, click here to create one.

Non-subscribers

Click here to see your options for subscribing.

Single day pass

You also have the option of purchasing 24 hours of access, for $1.00. Click here to purchase a single day pass.

Can we talk?

Conversation class instills confidence in non-native speakers


Posted

ORANGE PARK – If there wasn’t a signup sheet at the door that said it was a class, it would be hard to believe that anyone in the room had come to learn.

Tutors and students sat in a circle, exchanging stories and laughs in a room behind the Orange Park Public Library’s front desk.

But it wasn’t just a get together between friends, it was a gathering where people came to practice English. Tutors with the Clay County Literary Coalition sat with adult men and women for whom English is their second language. The class allows them to talk and refine their English-speaking skills.

“We take for granted the things that we do on a daily basis because we understand the language, and these people are literally immersed in our world – they always feel like there’s something missing,” said Darling Stokes, Coalition board president. “A lot of times people look at them and say they’re not educated – we have some very highly educated people here. The goal is to improve their lives by being immersed in our world and understanding what’s going on around them.”

The Literacy Coalition, which has been around since 1995, seeks to improve reading and writing comprehension skills among adults who are non-native speakers of English. The nonprofit offers free classes in a laid-back atmosphere for those who need their services.

Conversation class gives students a chance to put their knowledge to the test in a pragmatic and fun way.

“A lot of our students are here number one to get better, to speak it, to understand it,” Stokes said. “A lot of them are here for jobs, we get a lot of those for more so a job than anything else.”

Ines Gonzalez and her husband Frank sit next to each other. Frank doesn’t speak much, but Ines certainly makes up for them both. She recounts stories of her homeland Cuba and how different it is from America.

Specifically, she said she loves having soft toilet paper.

Twelve years ago, her family was given the chance to move to America from Cuba after winning an immigration lottery. The ticket took her to the United States Consulate in Virginia. From there, she moved to Miami.

“Miami was just Cuba with more food,” she said with a laugh.

Also in the audience were natives of Colombia and Peru. Each of them had varying levels of English language skills, but all were able to effectively communicate with each other.

When many of the students go home, they’ll be speaking their native languages among their family members. The conversation class helps combat the urge to exclusively use their native language.

The goal of the Coalition’s classes isn’t to Westernize all manner of speech and language out of the participants, but to give students the information they need to understand life in America with less hassle and less danger. For instance, one could unknowingly take the wrong medications because they could not read the label.

“They do come with some English speaking skills, but a lot of times the confidence level isn’t enough for them to speak up,” Stokes said.

The coalition recently shook-up some of its members and introduced new members into its board of directors. Shaw has also begun to promote the nonprofit more in the community by attending more nonprofit events. The hope is to become more acquainted with the community and get their name out more.

“I feel like in the past we weren’t promoting our organization like we should have. A lot of the other community organizations don’t understand we still exist and what services we offer,” said Lynette Shaw, Coalition tutor coordinator.

But there’s some added urgency to their new community outreach. Shaw said many of the grants the Coalition uses to run their programs are being reorganized with a larger focus on Kindergarten through 12th grade education.

“We’re not even eligible to apply to a lot of grants now,” Shaw said.

Because of this, the Coalition hopes to pique interest of volunteers and donors more to keep the program running at full capacity.

The program even hopes to expand to add classes on how to read prescription labels and add a computer literacy program.

After conversation class, Ines chats about how close she is to completing her U.S citizenship course. Over the last decade, Ines has lived as a permanent resident with a green card, but has not had the right to vote because she had not yet become a full U.S. citizen.

She and her husband failed the test previously because of the final portion of the exam, conversational English.

Ines believes she will ace it this time after just one month in the conversation program. She said she’s excited that, for the first time in her life, she’ll be able to have her voice heard through a vote. And, if she keeps practicing, she’ll be able to have her voice heard in perfect English, as well.

“Very good, very good,” Ines said. “The class is going good.”