ESOL News from Across Scotland - Posted 04/12/2011
Language Cafe, City of Glasgow College ESOL Students
Language Cafe is a place for ESOL students to meet , usually on the first Saturday of each month at 1pm in St Mungo’s Museum, Glasgow for a few hours relaxation and socialising. Students may bring along their children on the day of Language Cafe. Games and drawing and painting, art work etc are things the children can be involved in (adults too of course!).
Refreshments are provided for the students by City of Glasgow College. The Cafe has been up and running now since the beginning of 2011 with considerable success.
The Cafe has helped to foster new friendships where students support and guide each other in everyday matters as well as just relaxing, laughing and enjoying each other’s company.
The Language Cafe belongs to and is led by the students although Christine and Susie (ESOL Lecturers from the City of Glasgow College) were instrumental in the setting it up, other teachers are now on board and come along bringing their children too. It’s a community for the City of Glasgow ESOL students.
Currently a small group of Language Cafe students are forming a committee to take Language Cafe forward and soon will be on Facebook on the City of Glasgow College page.
For more information about this, please contact Christine Palmer.
Success for a young ESOL learner – Parastou Ghafourian
Parastou joined All Saints RC Secondary in November 2008. Although her English was not assessed at the time, she could easily be recorded as becoming familiar with English. After briefly staying at the Bilingual Support Unit, the staff there recommended her to join the mainstream classes full time. Her chemistry teacher however found that she was struggling with certain aspects of the topics due to insufficient mastery of the English language. She returned to the support unit to improve her English and study the subject with support from the bilingual teachers before re-joining her chemistry class.
Two years later, to the delight of everyone she performed very well in her higher exams obtaining 5 A's in the following subjects: ESOL, Chemistry, Biology, Geography and Maths. She is now doing advanced higher Maths, Biology, Chemistry and higher PE. Unfortunately, as she has not yet been given a leave to remain in this country, she can not go to university to study medicine, a discipline she is passionate about. We are proud that she is one of our pupils who performed very well in ESOL this year.
For more information please contact Dr Edward Momo.
Childcare with ESOL, The Saheliya Learning Centre
September – December 2011
The Saheliya Learning Centre has been delivering SQA Skills for Work modules for women attending the Learning Centre. This course offers an entry level for those who think early education and childcare might be a possible career path for them.
Course participants are also registered as students with Jewel and Esk Valley College who are our partners in delivering this training.
We have a group of 10 women who have completed modules in both Child Development and Parenting. The Saheliya Learning Centre also provides ESOL support that runs alongside these modules that allow the women who have English as their second language the opportunity to gain these accredited qualifications that in turn provide them with a first step on the route to employment.
The comments have been
"I am really happy with the course. It has really helped me a lot with looking after my child".
"I have learned a lot and feel great coming on this course".
"This course has really built up my confidence".
"I have learned a lot about childcare".
"This course has made me feel I can go on to do other courses".
For more information, contact Pamela Couper.
ESOL Network Co-ordination Project, North and East Glasgow
The ESOL Network Co-ordination Project is running until March 2012 and is focusing on providing initial assessment opportunities, information and advice for prospective ESOL learners within the North and East of Glasgow.
The project is funded by Glasgow City Council and aims at developing an integrated initial assessment and information / placement service. This builds on the extensive work already done in Glasgow South East which led to the creation of the EASE (ESOL Advice, Support and Entry Service) model. This model has already been adopted as an example of excellent practice, and extended across many parts of the city.
Useful connections have been established through the current project and assessments are underway, with positive feedback from community partners and learners.
By working alongside college and community based ESOL providers, project co-ordinator Linda Wood also hopes to develop a citywide ESOL Providers' Network - to share information, develop ideas and services and share good practice.
For more information on the project, please contact Linda Wood, telephone 0141 271 6232.
Stirling School of English and European Day of Languages
Did you know that over 6000 languages are spoken in the world? And that each of these has its own rich and diverse culture?
This year marked the tenth anniversary of European Day of Languages, following the decision of the Council of Europe in 2001 to hold an annual celebration on 26 September, of the diversity of language and culture, across the continent. This year the joint Commission confirmed that:
"Respect for cultural and linguistic diversity and language learning for all are fundamental principles of the Council of Europe and of the European Union. The ability to understand and use several languages helps citizens achieve their full potential, both socially and professionally. Language skills are essential for equity and integration. Against the current backdrop of increasing mobility, globalisation of the economy and changing economic trends, the need to learn languages and develop plurilingual and intercultural education is more obvious than ever before".
Throughout the week, Stirling School of English celebrated European Language Day.
However, the fun event included all languages spoken by students, many of whom come from beyond Europe. Students and tutors alike celebrated their language and culture, with activities, games, poetry and singing. Activities included talking about flags, reading posters in different languages, shared completion of a jigsaw map of the world with flags, quizzes about language, teaching fellow students introductory phrases of many languages...and many more.
Don't forget to celebrate this event next year!
For more information, please contact Lore Kelling.
New Scots Welcome Viking Visitors
In early November, twenty-one Business students from Tradium College in Jutland, Denmark came to City of Glasgow College for a short course in English, Marketing and Cultural Studies. In addition to field trips, project-based tasks and lectures, the Danes spent a very engaging session with twenty-five SQA Higher ESOL students. The ESOL department has learners of forty different nationalities. All participants appreciated the opportunity to test their English skills in a semi-authentic situation.
Both sets of students enjoyed sharing their opinions and very diverse life experiences. The Glasgow-based ESOL students provided international foods to add to the buffet lunch.
This project is the result of collaboration between City of Glasgow College School of Languages & ESOL and the Department for External Funding.
The Danish trip is partly supported by "Leonardo" EU funding.
For more information, please contact David Cullen.
