ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE PROGRAM
WHY IS THERE A NEED FOR ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE?
26% of Chicago’s population is composed of Latino immigrants. Economic necessity and the search for better opportunities bring this population to our community. Many of our students face economic and cultural forces that cause them to leave their schools and their countries at an early age. Centro Romero provides a comfortable learning atmosphere that is appropriate for the needs of the Latino immigrant population. Our goal is to help empower the Latino community to utilize their cultural richness to improve their lives and our community.
We are here to…
· Serve the Latino community in learning English, so as to prepare individuals for jobs and further their education in the U.S
· Create a sense of community and increase the confidence for newcomers to this country
· Offer a friendly bilingual environment conducive to learning
· Enable students to use city services, especially the public library, so that they can read, help teach their children, use computers and have access to Chicago’s museums via the museum pass
· Empower the Latino community to act on issues that affect them by offering presentations and fostering discussions on those issues
WHAT WE DO
· We hold morning, evening and Saturday English as a Second Language classes at 4 different levels: Prep, 1A, 1B, and 2A.
· We teach reading, writing, speaking and listening in English.
· We use a variety of educational games, puzzles, music, pictures, art, stories, dialogues, and props to make English more enjoyable.
· We accompany the students on a tour of the Chicago Public Library and assisting them in obtaining library cards.
· We try to make ESL relevant to students lives by planning curriculum around students’ needs and interests and by bringing in different community members to give presentations about resources and services available as well as issues that affect us.
WHAT WE'D LIKE TO DO IF WE HAD MORE RESOURCES
· Provide more cultural events to students (field trips, etc.)
· Create an ESL library for students to rent books from
· Provide students with more books and resources to keep
· Open more ESL classes and offer higher levels of ESL
· Expand our computer lab, install ESL instructional software, and offer ESL classes on the computer as well as computer classes
|
