Church-Centered English as a Second Language Program

In a planning meeting the following details should be discussed and decided upon.

Needs of the community—who is being invited to attend classes? How will you reach the community? Is it a closed class—only for a certain group? Multi-lingual? Is this a language with a different writing system?

Teachers—volunteer teachers can be anyone from older teens to seniors. Teacher training should be required. Many of your best teachers are going to be teachers who are already teaching pre-school classes or who have taught them in the past. These teachers are familiar with teaching language. Local Literacy Councils will often train ESL teachers for their own programs. They usually ask that a person teach for a specified time in one of their programs in exchange for the training. Actually, this is good training.

Curriculum—type will depend on needs of the students. Series such as Side by Side, Word by Word, and the Betty Azar books, are all good choices. The English ASAP series helps them in the workplace and Conversation Books help students to talk. Growing Readers’ Phonics Bible is a good book for presenting phonics/pronunciation and the gospel. Will you provide books or make copies? Will you write your own curriculum? (If this is a government grant program, religious training cannot be included.)

Enrollment and Placement Testing—what do your students already know. A short test can tell a lot. Oral and Written assessment. Open enrollment or closed enrollment? Will you continue to take in new students throughout the program or will you have a cut off date? Is the class only open to a certain group, such as employees of a specific company? Announce the date/dates of enrollment to your target group. The announcement needs to be written or given in the students’ native language. It should include enrollment date/s class days and times, and length of program. Will you have a summer program?

Book keeper/Administrator—must have to maintain records and data. Central communicator who calls subs when needed. Sends out reports from time to time. Keeps track of attendance, enrollment data sheets, placement and achievement tests. If this is an open enrollment program, this person is on site during classes to enroll and test new students. This person can also sell books to students.

Children’s program—Will the students be able to attend if they cannot bring their children? An organized program with children separated according to age is best. High school students who need "community service" hours for college entrance applications, when properly trained, make excellent volunteers for this program. It should be overseen by an adult. Problems do occur. Parents must sign children in and out.

Data sheets—What do you want and need to know about your students and their children entering the children’s program? If you are looking for a government grant, this must include social security numbers, home addresses, phone numbers. Many people, when faced with having to give a social security number, panic.

Classes—Three levels are most common: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. If you have enough teachers you can break classes down into Beginner 1 and 2, etc. If you only have two teachers, try to have a beginner class and an Intermediate/Advanced. It is difficult for one teacher to teach all levels, but it can be done with advance preparation.

All classes have a sign-in sheet. Students and teacher should always sign in.

Classes can be twice or three times a week for an hour-and-a-half to two hours.