Immigrants and refugees all know they have to learn English, but it is a very difficult language. These free classes are helping as many as they can. - - Donna Poisl
by Zeynep Memecan
“Do you want to repeat?” asks Norma Elliott, enunciating each word slowly with a special emphasis on the final “t.” She is addressing five students who have just completed watching a movie specially made for English learners. Elliott runs workshop sessions at the Riverside Language Program, which has offered classes at its home in Riverside Church for 30 years to provide free classes in ESOL —English for Speakers of Other Languages—for more than 200 adults.
The program draws immigrants and refugees who speak about 30 different languages and represent more than 50 countries. Among them are homeless people and victims of human trafficking and torture. Some, because of customs, poverty, or war, have never gone to school. Others have the equivalent of doctorate degrees in their native countries. The youngest student is 17 and the oldest is 70. All have legal status and a desire to learn English as quickly as possible.
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