Complete Schedule

Award Winner

Recipient of the 2018 Community Engagement Celebration Day Social Justice Award

Presentation Type

Open Access Other

Keywords

English language--Study and teaching--Iowa--Black Hawk County--Foreign speakers;

Project Summary

In 2016, a collaboration began between UNI faculty and students in service learning courses in the Department of Languages & Literatures and classes in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) at the YWCA of Black Hawk County. Since that time, students in two Spanish courses (Latinos in the U.S. and Advanced Conversation & Reading) and one English linguistics course (Structure of English) have worked as language partners with adult learners of English in full semester and partial semester community-based learning projects over the course of five consecutive semesters (Spring 2016 to Spring 2018). Members of the L&L faculty, Elise DuBord, Jennifer Cooley and Caroline Ledeboer, have facilitated this collaboration with ESOL instructors and Multicultural Services Coordinators, Alejandra Huesca and Umaru Balde. As institutional partners, Department of Languages & Literatures and the YWCA have developed a positive and sustainable working relationship. Over one hundred UNI students have worked at the YWCA through coursework in their majors with approximately fifty community English students in this informal setting. These adult language learners come from a wide range of educational and language backgrounds, ranging from francophone and Portuguese-speaking Africa, Spanish-speaking Latin America, Serbo-Croatian Bosnia, and several language groups from Myanmar (Burma). Typical class sessions in the ESOL classes include informal English lessons on practical topics, such as food, shopping, the public library, and medical appointments, but the central components of this project are the communication skills and intercultural competency that all participants develop.

Start Date

19-4-2018 9:00 AM

End Date

19-4-2018 10:30 AM

Event Host

UNI Office of Undergraduate Studies

Department

Department of Languages and Literatures

Award Category

Social Justice Award (Theme-Based)

Comments

PowerPoint Presentation

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

File Format

application/pdf

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Apr 19th, 9:00 AM Apr 19th, 10:30 AM

Language Partners at the YWCA: UNI Spanish, English and TESOL students collaborating with English students in community ESOL classes

In 2016, a collaboration began between UNI faculty and students in service learning courses in the Department of Languages & Literatures and classes in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) at the YWCA of Black Hawk County. Since that time, students in two Spanish courses (Latinos in the U.S. and Advanced Conversation & Reading) and one English linguistics course (Structure of English) have worked as language partners with adult learners of English in full semester and partial semester community-based learning projects over the course of five consecutive semesters (Spring 2016 to Spring 2018). Members of the L&L faculty, Elise DuBord, Jennifer Cooley and Caroline Ledeboer, have facilitated this collaboration with ESOL instructors and Multicultural Services Coordinators, Alejandra Huesca and Umaru Balde. As institutional partners, Department of Languages & Literatures and the YWCA have developed a positive and sustainable working relationship. Over one hundred UNI students have worked at the YWCA through coursework in their majors with approximately fifty community English students in this informal setting. These adult language learners come from a wide range of educational and language backgrounds, ranging from francophone and Portuguese-speaking Africa, Spanish-speaking Latin America, Serbo-Croatian Bosnia, and several language groups from Myanmar (Burma). Typical class sessions in the ESOL classes include informal English lessons on practical topics, such as food, shopping, the public library, and medical appointments, but the central components of this project are the communication skills and intercultural competency that all participants develop.