My American English Lessons :: Education Language Learning Essays

Mezimenes sonorous singing rang clearly to a higher place the voices of her socio-economic classmates. A, B, C, D . . . L-M-N-O-P . . . W, X, Y, and Z. Wednesday night language classes all started the same(p) way we introduced ourselves and a neighbor I am Mezimene. He is Francisco. All eighteen students came for the same reasons. Learning American English would allow them to pass the U.S. citizenship exam and interview, to chuck out at rifle, or to find better employment. Listening, speaking, and writing were our tasks. The women did very fountainhead they learned to collaborate and worked together filling the gaps in their understanding of the yarn or writing assignments. Most of the men struggled to stay awake as we worked into the late evening hours, lagging behind in their lessons-but Francisco managed to excel and eternally stayed on track. Tired, weary-the students trickled in before 610 pm, coming from work or taking care of children. They paid xl dollars for six month s of classes, property invested toward achieving their goals and dreams in America. I had never taught adults before, but embarked on the endeavor copious of idealistic hope and fervor. My students came to America from Ethiopia, Somalia, Haiti, and Cape Verde. None were younger than forty and some were already in their sixties, but that, for me, was the charm of reading the class nurturing the desire to find new opportunities through citizenship or assimilation into the American way of life. I saw the class as an avenue of passage, a beacon, a training ground, where the students could complete the difficult passage from being seen as outsiders to becoming full-fledged Americans, even of a hyphenated variety Ethiopian-American, Somali-American, Haitian-American, and Cape Verde-American. conclusion out the goals and aspirations of my students was as important as marking down further notes about their reading and writing skills. I was not there to inform language in isolation, or phonics alone I felt called to teach my class about American English in the real world, in their world. Yet there were those who disagreed with me the first principle and kinesthetics practitioners, who touted the importance of writing the alphabet over and over again at each class posing and engaged in physical activities that would reinforce classroom learning. The program conductor was one of these devotees, and I watched as she began instruction one week. The program theater director was a tall, bony woman with wild, frizzy hair and a smile that seemed more snide than kind.