ESL El Centro meets challenges

ESL El Centro volunteers teach English as a second language to recent adult immigrants from Latin America. Every Tuesday through Friday at 4:45 p.m., approximately five volunteers line up in Lot 23 to ride half an hour away to El Centro, a Trenton-based community center that helps low-income immigrants in the area. Each semester, core volunteers sign up for a weekly teaching shift while project coordinators organize transportation through the Pace Center and take charge of bringing lesson plans each day. Other, non-core volunteers are on the listserv and fill in as necessary. Volunteers teach English from 5:30-7 p.m., drawing lesson plans from a set of newly purchased ESL textbooks, photocopies of which are made and passed out to the class.

The mission of ESL El Centro is fairly clear: to teach recent immigrants English. But the project’s impact extends far beyond that practical benefit. Alomi Parikh ’15, one of four project coordinators, explained that the ESL classes not only push immigrants to improve their English, but also help immigrants gain confidence for job interviews and adapt to life in America. One ESL student, Parikh noted, was inspired to go to college because of the ESL classes he took at El Centro. That student will start community college this fall.

The volunteers' efforts in reaching out to the immigrant community helps to fortify ESL El Centro in its mission to provide support and security to a marginalized population. However, there are also some limitations: Consistency, experience and resources are among the El Centro project’s biggest problems. The group has undergone many significant reforms this year to make it more effective.

In the past, volunteers created their own lesson plans and kept track of what they’d taught by handwriting notes in a group binder. Now, teachers are expected to write emails to all core volunteers after each class, detailing what was covered and what should be covered during the next session. In addition, thanks to new Pace Center funding, the group has purchased an ESL curriculum that includes four levels of English learning: basic, one, two and three. This has allowed the teachers to split students up by language level instead of teaching beginners alongside more advanced speakers, as they did before. The new curriculum has also allowed the teachers to quiz students after every unit, which allows them to see what topics students have mastered and which topics need more work. The group also plans on giving a final examination and awarding certificates denoting the number of classes attended or the language level completed.

ESL El Centro has made important improvements over the last year, but it is still a fairly young organization with the potential to become even more effective in the future. The group hopes the program can expand to include other classes in addition to ESL and wants to start a GED program next fall or spring. To do so, they will need additional core volunteers and will rely on veteran volunteers to ensure a smooth and effective expansion. Finding volunteers presents its own complications. Most of the students are beginning English speakers, which makes it hard for the volunteer teachers to communicate and effectively teach the lower language levels without a strong Spanish-speaking ability. Although it is not an immense time commitment — just about two and a half hours a week, if you factor in transportation time — the fact that El Centro is a 30-minute car ride off campus deters many would-be volunteers. El Centro faces these complications and more, but given the group's proactive leadership and tangible changes put into action this year, it seems the volunteers are aware of the obstacles they face and committed to providing greater support to the New Jersey community.