Here is another story about volunteers helping immigrants learn English, which is the main thing they need to be successful here. DP
By Ernesto Portillo Jr., Arizona Daily Star
In a classroom at Myers- Ganoung Elementary School, 11 immigrant women sit at three tables and, in their heavily accented English, begin happily talking about clothes shopping.
Just as they start, however, Janet Frakes, their teacher, interrupts them.
"Let's make this harder," she says. "Let's not fool around."
Even though healthy doses of laughter fill the portable classroom, there is no fooling around in Frakes' English as a Second Language class. Frakes, a one-time English teacher in Tucson schools, is here to instruct and the women are here to learn.
It's a perfect match.
"They want to learn practical English," said Frakes in her no-nonsense way.
Frakes is a tutor for Literacy Volunteers of Tucson. And for six years, since she returned to Tucson after an 18-year absence, she has taught English to foreign-born Tucsonans.
In her years as a tutor, Frakes has discovered that the students, who come from different countries and have various personal experiences, all come for the same reasons.
They want to learn English to get a better job, earn their citizenship and, most important, to help their children.
"Helping their children is their number one motivation," Frakes said.
She is one of about 260 tutors who teach English and reading to more than 800 adults, both native-born and immigrants. Students and tutors meet in 17 libraries and schools in 37 classes or one-on-one.
I visited Frakes' class and two others to observe and learn. I have volunteered to be a tutor.
Literacy Volunteers is funded privately and eschews public funds in order to reach as many people as possible, said executive director Betty Stauffer.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
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