Spanish-Speaking Residents Look To College For Help With English

Numerous people are moving into North Carolina from other countries, many of them Spanish-speaking, and they need to learn English in order to cope with their new neighbors, schools and jobs.

A great many of these are turning to the state’s community colleges, which offer English-As-A-Second-Language (ESL) training free of charge.

Vance-Granville Community College operates campuses in four counties – Vance, Granville, Warren and Franklin – and conducts ongoing ESL classes at all four of them. The school also goes into the communities and holds classes for adults in local schools. Currently, there are ESL classes at L.B. Yancey Elementary School in Henderson and at Mary Potter Elementary School in Oxford. A new class is planned to begin soon at a school in Louisburg.

“Because many families who need English instruction lack transportation, we try to put classes into their neighborhoods so it will be more convenient for them to get there,” said George Tyler, who coordinates the ESL program for Vance-Granville.

All the classes are free, and anyone 16 or older may take advantage of them. Students may enroll at any time, and all they have to provide is contact information, such as name and address.

English-As-A-Second Language classes are designed to teach English to any nationality, but the students at VGCC are predominantly Spanish-speaking. Occasionally, there will be someone from another culture enrolled, such as a native of India currently in the ESL class on the VGCC main campus in Henderson. All the instructors in the classes are bi-lingual, or an interpreter is available to assist in the classes.

“First, we teach ‘survival’ English, practical things, such as how to talk to a grocer, a rental agent or a doctor, and what to say in emergencies,” Tyler said. “We try to teach the students how to get along in American society, how to greet someone, how not to offend others – the common courtesies of day-to-day living.” A manual in Spanish is provided to help students get a driver’s license.

In addition to the school-based classes, Vance-Granville instructors like to go into industries and teach non-English speaking workers language that will help them get along in their jobs. “We go into the company and see what workers there are doing, and we stress safety on individual jobs,” Tyler said.

These industry-based classes can be taught at convenient times of the day for the workers. Tyler said VGCC taught a class at 7 a.m. in the Hannaford Foods warehouse in Granville County. Classes have also been held at Revlon, Bandag and Gate Concrete in Oxford and at Louisiana Pacific in Henderson.

Hispanic people don’t always have to speak English to get jobs, but knowing the language will help them work more safely, will help them be more efficient and will help them advance in their jobs, Tyler said.

Many educated Hispanics are doing manual labor because of communication problems. Tyler said, “I know several who have attended college who do minimum wage work because they can’t speak English.”

During a recent visit to an ESL class at Vance-Granville, instructor Roderick Daye said Hispanic students attend the classes so they can understand their children’s English-language school work and help them in their classes. Some ESL students learn English and get a General Equivalency Diploma (high school) to return home to Mexico or other Spanish-speaking countries and teach English.

Modesta Alcazar is a well-educated mother of three from Mexico who is in the ESL class at VGCC. Her daughter has graduated from Northern Vance High School in Henderson, and a son who will be a senior there this fall. He is an honors student. Alcazar, 36, taught fifth grade in Mexico before coming to the United States.

“I’m taking the ESL and GED courses at Vance-Granville for many reasons,” Alcazar said. She wants to improve her conversation abilities and to get a better job at Premier Quilting in Oxford, where she works as a quilter.

Maria Heredia has been in Henderson two years from Peru and hopes to enter Vance-Granville’s Information Systems program this fall to learn computers. “I know nothing about computers now, but I’m a good learner, and the more English I learn, the better I can learn about computers,” she said.

Other students say they have children in school who speak English fluently, and they want to know what they are talking about.

Jose Martinez, 40, from Honduras, was attending the ESL classes on crutches. He had an accident at work at Harriet & Henderson Yarns in Henderson and, “The company told him to come and learn more English so he can work safer,” a classmate said.

The lone Indian in the VGCC class in Henderson, Manish Parmar, has a master’s degree in business administration and speaks English fluently, but it is “British English.” He says he wants to learn more of the “American way of speaking English.” Parmar is also learning some basic Spanish in the class to help him communicate with some of his employees at the motel he manages in Henderson.

English-As-A-Second Language classes are held from 6 to 9 p.m. each Tuesday and Thursday at VGCC campuses in Henderson, Louisburg, Creedmoor and Warrenton. New students may enter at any time, and all they have to do is attend a class and sign up.

Pictured at top right, Modesta Alcazar, left, and Maria Heredia study a textbook together in an English-As-A-Second Language class at Vance-Granville Community College in Henderson. Alcazar, from Mexico, and Heredia, from Peru, both speak English but are attending the class to improve their conversation skills. Manish Parmar, in white shirt between the women, is working on “American English” as opposed to the British English he learned in his native India.

Pictured above at left, Roderick Daye, instructor in the English-As-A-Second Language class at Vance-Granville Community College in Henderson, points out an English word on the blackboard as he leads the class through an exercise. About 75 students currently attend ESL classes on Vance-Granville’s four campuses.