NIFL-ESL 2003: [NIFL-ESL:9526] Re: Spanish Adult Ed

The Mexican Consulate offers adult education in Spanish which allows any Spanish-speaker the opportunity to learn to read or study to complete their primaria or secundaria certificates from Mexico. They have a complete line of Spanish textbooks addressing work and family issues, which are available to download.

The consulate sets up a Plaza Comunitaria in cities with a large Hispanic population, usually in partnership with the school district. They recruit volunteer tutors from the community and set up small classes as students request them. They can also study at home and come in when they're ready to take the test and move to the next grade level. The Plaza also has a satellite link-up so they can watch classes taught in Mexico. They also use the Internet for instruction. Of course, the adults enjoy using computers very much. Child care is provided too. All this is provided free of cost to the students and the partnering district.

For more information, contact your local Mexican Consulate's education office or in Chicago (312) 855-1380.

Barb Linek

Illinois Migrant Education Even Start

Adult Education Coordinator

(815) 609-9935

----Original Message Follows----

From: "Mona Curtis" <MCURTIS@TVCC.CC>

Reply-To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov

To: Multiple recipients of list <NIFL-ESL@LITERACY.NIFL.GOV>

Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9523] Re: dynamics of this list

Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 11:36:01 -0400 (EDT)

Dear Friends,

We at Treasure Valley Community College are embarking on a new venture and I would like some help if anyone else on the Listserv has experience in this area. Ontario Oregon is a rural community and many of our ESL students are agricultural workers whose native language is Spanish. In our efforts to teach ESL we have repeated found that lack of literacy skills in the native language creates a barrier in learning English as an adult. Spanish literacy is also a part of our goal of produing students who are fully bilingual, meaning they read, write and speak both English and Spanish well. We have a strong Spanish GED program but many students are not GED level; they are pre-GED level. So it is this lower end Spanish literacy skills that we wish to address.

We have funds to hire a Spanish Literacy tutor coordinator and we also have a pool of potential tutors, mainly recent Spanish GED graduates. There are also many bilingual people in the community who I think would be willing to help if a system was in place to connect them to the individuals who need the help.

I would really like to find some other colleges or organizations who have done similar work in native language literacy so that we can share ideas.

Mona Curtis

ESL Coordinator

Treasure Valley Community College

650 College Blvd.

Ontario, OR 97914

www.tvcc.cc

541-881-8822 x 316

fax 541-881-2747