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After attending two three-hour classes a week for four months, 23 proud adult English learners received certificates for completing the first level of their studies in a small graduation ceremony at Anzar High School.
As she handed out the certificates, instructor Cecilia Salzer said she could not help but become emotional.
“I thought I was going to cry,” she said. “I’m really proud of them. The really nice thing about this group is that they’re very close-knit; they help each other, and they don’t leave anybody behind.”
In addition to their certificates, each graduate was given two passes to Gilroy Gardens, courtesy of Victoria Vasquez of JMM Dance Studio.
“We’re super excited to be able to do this,” Vasquez said. “We wanted to show how proud we were of these parents who have taken the time to really learn the English language.”
Offered by the Aromas-San Juan Unified School District in partnership with Gavilan College, the classes were first proposed two years ago when parents at San Juan School expressed interest in learning or improving their English.
“The parents tried to start this,” instructor Sara Perez said, “They were trying to bring a Gavilan teacher to San Juan school. I decided to take it over because I felt like we could really expand it out into the community.”
Initially, 32 people signed up, but some were too advanced for the basic-level class and referred back to Gavilan for other courses. Those who qualified, Perez said, turned out to be very dedicated.
“I was afraid that they might all come at the beginning,” she said, “and then maybe trail off because it was six hours a week. That’s a lot of time for a parent. But they really wanted to keep going, and I think that’s key.”
Perez said that the parents also received a lot of encouragement from their children, saying that one teacher told her a student asked her, “Did you know that my mom is going to college right now?”
“That kind of pride is such a beautiful thing to see,” Perez said. “They’re so excited, and it’s so beneficial for the parents.”
Salzer, who is also a Life Skills instructor at Gavilan, said that her first language is Japanese and that her experience as an English learner informs her lessons. She said she works on practical skills, such as being able to report symptoms to a non-Spanish-speaking doctor, but also tries to make the lessons tie into her students’ culture.
“When we talk about things, I’m always asking them, ‘how does it compare to your culture?’ So they have a background which they can fall back on and then explain things to the class in English.”
The initial goal, she said, is to learn vocabulary and some phrases that will help make connections to the language that they hear every day in the community.
“When they’re able to connect,” she said, “they suddenly understand, ‘Oh, so that’s what that was all about.’ There were many of those types of ‘a-ha’ moments.”
English language learner Georgina Salazar said she took the class to improve her fluency and writing, and that while the work was hard, everyone seemed to find it worthwhile.
“We come after work,” she said, “so sometimes I cannot eat. I just come to the class and have a snack, and I can survive. And we enjoy it so much.”
Salazar said she thought she had improved her skills by about 40% and was looking forward to taking more classes.
“I can communicate with the people more easily,” she said. “Probably, I can get a better job, or I can continue with another class for my perfection of English.”
Jivan Dhaliwal, the district’s curriculum and instruction director, said that there are already plans for more classes next year.
“We’re working with Gavilan right now to determine what class level and how we are going to provide it here at Anzar again, in terms of resources,” she said. “It became very clear that we needed support from a professional child care provider.”
But she was enthusiastic about how well the classes went and about the students’ reaction to receiving their certificates.
“You could tell that the parents felt accomplished, and there was so much enthusiasm from their kids,” she said. “It was heart-warming.”
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