Learning the language: Children study English as parents do

Since parents can't go to class without having a place to take their children, this English program teaches the parents in one classroom and their small children in another. DP

By AARON CHIMBEL / WFAA Mobile Journalist

wfaa.com: Three, four and five year-olds clinch hands and began to chug their way through the alphabet.

In a classroom nearby their parents are learning too. Not by singing, they're studying words and phrases about clothing.

But without the games for their children, many of the adults say they wouldn't be able to learn English.

"I don't have nobody to leave her with," Tereza Loburya, who came to Dallas three years ago from Sudan says of her daughter, Matilda.

Asked if there is anyplace that Alicia Garcia can take her 18-month-old daughter, Maria, while she attends class, she replies: "No, just here."

That's the dilemma for many immigrants wanting to learn English. If there is no safe place to leave their children, they can not go to class.

"Unfortunately there's just not a lot of opportunity for free pre-school programs in Dallas," said Sarah Polley, the executive director of Vickery Meadow Learning Center, where Garcia and Loburya and their daughters are all take classes for free.

Polley says there are about 80 Dallas I.S.D. pre-K spaces in the neighborhood for nearly 5,000 children under 6.
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