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Mission Statement
We promote and support the teaching of English to adult immigrants of all nationalities in Northern Virginia and welcome their active participation in our community. |
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Thank You to ...
All those who generously supported our annual fund drive;
The Rev. Dr. Young Jin Cho, who has served as an ex officio member of ESLIM's board of directors during his tenure as District Superintendent for the Arlington District of the United Methodist Church; Dr. Cho has been elected to serve as bishop for the Virgnia Conference of the United Methodist Church;
Chris Herbert and ESLIM acting president Doug Herbert for managing the website updates;
And all those who work behind the scenes to make our classes possible! |
| Member Churches
Arlington United Methodist Church
Bruen Chapel United Methodist Church
Calvary United Methodist Church
Centreville United Methodist Church
Crossroads United Methodist Church
Culmore United Methodist Church
Dulin United Methodist Church
First Presbyterian Church & Mount Olivet United Methodist Church (joint program)
Grace United Methodist Church
Graham Road United Methodist Church
Lord of Life Lutheran Church
Trinity Episcopal Church |
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Workplace Giving
Did you know that ESLIM participates in the Combined Federal Campaign and United Way?
Please designate CFC #60490
or United Way #9393. |
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ESL Students and Olympians
During the games of the thirtieth Olympiad this summer, some athletes expressed their sheer delight at the opportunity to participate in the Olympics. They were simply glad to be there. Their years of dedication and training paid off, and they had become Olympians.
ESL students are a little bit like Olympic athletes. They are often thrilled about living in the U.S., despite making sacrifices such as being separated from loved ones, abandoning their careers, and struggling with the language barrier. And, like training for the Olympics, learning a language can be a lengthy process!
In this issue of the Speak Easy, you can read about one student's excellent progress in learning English, a volunteer's commitment to assisting her students, and upcoming training opportunities offered by ESLIM.
It is an honor and a privilege to work with English language learners across Northern Virginia. Thank you to all those in the ESLIM family who reach out to our neighbors who are determined to improve their English skills.
We welcome your ideas for articles and feedback about the e-newsletter; please email office@eslim.org. |
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Student Spotlight
by Karen Brown, Teacher at Graham Road United Methodist Church
Marvin has lived in the U.S. for nearly 15 years. Originally from Ahuachapan, El Salvador, he studied English at a Fairfax County adult education program for six months when he first came to the U.S. But then he became busy, working first as a painter and later in jobs with increasing responsibility cleaning office buildings. He got married and had two children. While Marvin's wife Helke, also from El Salvador, was able to continue her English studies during the week at another church program, Marvin found little time left for English classes in his busy day.
But at the same time, Marvin realized that to advance in his job, he needed to improve his written and spoken English. Marvin now supervises a cleaning crew of 14 working in the Arlington Courthouse. Half the crew are native Spanish speakers and the other half are Vietnamese speakers. Between Marvin and his boss, a native Vietnamese speaker, they manage to supervise their team. But having better English will improve interactions with those working at the Courthouse and improve the team's ability to meet customers' needs. Marvin added that getting to know people from many countries as well as native English speakers is one of the best parts of his job.
Since Marvin works evenings, he enrolled in the Saturday morning class at Graham Road United Methodist Church in Falls Church. The small class size gives Marvin lots of opportunities to practice and improve his English. And sometimes learning English can even be fun! Marvin got to tell his classmates all about the May soccer game between the U.S. and Brazil at Fedex field, using the past tense verbs he had been learning. Marvin believes his English has improved. He understands better when people, including his boss, speak English to him. He was pleased when a supervisor of the 911 Emergency Center remarked that Marvin's English was improving. When Marvin told him that he was taking English classes, his colleague congratulated him, making his day.
Marvin believes learning English is important for everyone coming to the U.S.: to survive in the U.S., to get a better job, to have a better life.
As Marvin's English improves, he hopes to keep moving up step by step in his job. A better command of English will enable this dream to become a reality. |
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Volunteer Spotlight: Cheri Bass
by Terri Kennedy, ESLIM Secretary and ESL Coordinator at Crossroads United Methodist Church
In June 2009, somehow Cheri Bass found our Crossroads United Methodist website and our ESL ministry page. It's a little buried and takes some work to unearth, so when I received an inquiry about volunteering as a teacher from her she already had my high marks. She came on board with no background in teaching, took the ESLIM training from Lauren Lang and has never looked back.
Cheri lived for six months in Morocco without a word of Arabic and feels for the plight of our newly transitioning neighbors. She taught Level 1 for four semesters and had the highest student retention rates we've ever experienced. Her classes are constantly out of their seats doing activities, sometimes coming into the common room to play a game. Classes are defined by laughter and lots of talking which in a Level 1 class is pretty spectacular.
During one of these semesters she even met separately with one student an additional hour or two each week one-on-one to help tutor her. She spoke Arabic and was really struggling with the alphabet and basic phonetics.
After four semesters in Level 1, Cheri decided to move to a higher level and has brought the same energy to her new classes. She kept and left a copy of every single game, activity, homework assignment and class prep for each night of class for the teacher that followed her which was a huge help!
Cheri feels the call to teach ESL and help our neighbors strongly enough that she volunteers in another local program during the day one day a week as well. Someday maybe the two programs with unify on one curriculum and she'll only have one class prep a week! |
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New Teacher Training
ESLIM will provide new teacher training on Saturday, August 25, 2012 from 8:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Crossroads United Methodist Church in Ashburn. It will be repeated on Saturday, September 8, 2012 from 8:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Fairfax campus of Lord of Life Lutheran Church.
The day will begin with registration and refreshments from 8:45 - 9:00 a.m. We are delighted that Lauren Lang will once again provide a practical, hands-on approach to teaching English so that new teachers will feel comfortable walking into the classroom for the first time. A light lunch will be provided.
Past participants have described Lauren as a "great teacher, able to model and explain well," "terrific," and "accessible." They have praised her "great ideas for interactive activities."
Topics typically include lesson planning, cultural differences, line drills, interview grids, think-pair-share, information gap, comprehension checks, and building a sense of community.
The sessions are helpful not only for new teachers, but also returning teachers who have not attended the training in the past and returning teachers who would like a refresher.
The training is free for volunteers at ESLIM member churches. Volunteers from other programs may be able to attend for a fee on a space available basis.
Registration is required in advance. Please email the following information to office@eslim.org: your name, mailing address and phone number; the date of the training session you wish to attend; the church where you will be teaching; and the class level you will teach.
For more information, please contact Dorothy Hettmann at office@eslim.org. |
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Returning Teacher Training
Registration is required in advance. Please email the following information to office@eslim.org: your name, mailing address and phone number; the church where you will be teaching; and the class level you will teach.
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United Way Grant
 ESLIM is grateful to the United Way of Prince William County for awarding ESLIM a Community Impact Grant in 2012. This grant helps underwrite our teacher training, advertisements in the foreign press, and recruitment of new volunteers. Many thanks! |
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About ESLIM
ESLIM's member churches offer low-cost English classes for adult immigrants, taught by volunteers. Students who cannot pay receive scholarships.
To support the efforts of each of the program sites, ESLIM handles a variety of tasks in a centralized way. Its activities include the following:
- Advertising for volunteers
- Placing and training volunteer teachers
- Advertising the class schedule in foreign-language media
- Sending class schedule flyers to local libraries
- Maintaining a voice-mail line in which calls can be returned in English and Spanish (as well as Korean and Vietnamese during peak times)
- Producing the Speak Easy e-newsletter three times per year
- Maintaining a website that features the class schedule, a variety of resources for teachers, and information for faith communities considering an ESL ministry
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