Libraries and ESL
Increasingly, libraries are the place to learn English
Will Kilburn
October 19, 2006
The 8 p.m. intermediate English as a Second Language class at Milford Town Library is often about subtleties. When it comes to keys, are they at your pocket or in your pocket? Do you taxi at the airport, from the airport, or to the airport?
Instructor Vijay Magpal quizzes the students, gesturing at a whiteboard set up at the open end of a horseshoe of desks.
The 15 students, who range in age from young adult to retired and are from Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Peru, Russia, and Venezuela, answer sometimes in unison, and other times only after being called on by the smiling Magpal.
After one student stumbles, she tells him, "You'll get used to it, don't worry."
The class is one of four per week (two for beginners and two for intermediates) offered by the library, which also matches students with tutors for one-to-one instruction and provides learning materials and meeting space for both classes and tutoring sessions.
The Milford library is one of many libraries around Boston's western suburbs and the country that have taken on a new mission -- teaching immigrants English.
The library had focused for years on teaching reading and writing to native English speakers. But librarians saw a decrease in demand for adult literacy programs, along with an increase in students with learning disabilities, a group that staff and volunteers were ill-equipped to help.
The few native English-speaking students the library had "were not really making much progress," said reference and outreach librarian Anne Berard, who coordinates the library's ESL program.
"It's not to say that we no longer recognize that basic literacy is an issue for many people," said Berard. "It continues to be, and we try to refer them to a group that has more resources in place for that."
The growth in ESL offerings at libraries in response to a growing demand over the past 15 to 20 years -- and a concurrent decline in traditional adult literacy programs -- is a nationwide trend, said American Library Association president Leslie Burger.
Programs in the Globe West circulation area are typically grass-roots affairs, sharing many common traits: The tutors are volunteers, the instruction is free, there's more demand for one-on-one tutoring than group classes, and there are many, many more students than people to teach them.
At the Framingham Public Library, 260 tutors are matched up with 319 students, with eight-week "Survival English" classes also offered as a stopgap for those who are on the waiting list for tutoring. Interestingly, in Framingham and elsewhere, the tutors are not required to be fluent in any foreign languages.
"In some ways, it's an advantage not to know the language of your student, because you tend to rely on that more," said Sherry Glatfelter, who works in the library's Literacy Unlimited program. "We do have some tutors who are nonnative speakers, but for the most part they are native speakers."
In Wayland, the Free Public Library's program has matched more than 200 students with tutors over the past 16 years. The program at the Newton Free Library has 250 students.
The growth in ESL programs is part of another nationwide trend of libraries evolving into community centers, according to Burger.
"One of the things that we recognize is that libraries are really places of opportunity, and we've also recognized that people learn in many different ways," said Burger. People still go to libraries to check out books or ask a question of a reference librarian, she said, but now they've also become places to learn job skills, meet with their neighbors, or attend a class.
"We've really broadened a lot of what we do, and think about libraries as a place for lifelong learning now," she said.
The programs draw people from a variety of backgrounds. In Wayland, many of the students have been workers at a nearby Whole Foods store, while in Newton, a number of students have been researchers at local hospitals who may be fluent in the language of their work, but not in everyday English.
In Waltham, the library doesn't organize ESL programs, but offers space to other organizations that do. Assistant director Kate Tranquada said the library has also beefed up its collection of English language guides and non-English books and magazines in recent years.
"It may be that we've been serving that group more; I don't know that the need has changed as much as our realization that we could actually play a role," she said.
Magpal, the instructor in Milford, is a native of London who has been tutoring since her college days. A medical technician by day, Magpal has been a part of the library's literacy programs for 20 years, and regularly sees former students of the ESL program around town.
Their presence sends Magpal a message. Most of them came to the library to learn English so they could get a job; the fact that she sees them on the street means that they're making it in America.
"Once they start learning, and they start getting jobs, they pick up really fast after that," she said as she walks out of the classroom barely a step ahead of librarians closing the building down that Tuesday night. "It's my passion, really -- I just love to see their faces."
Will Kilburn
October 19, 2006
The 8 p.m. intermediate English as a Second Language class at Milford Town Library is often about subtleties. When it comes to keys, are they at your pocket or in your pocket? Do you taxi at the airport, from the airport, or to the airport?
Instructor Vijay Magpal quizzes the students, gesturing at a whiteboard set up at the open end of a horseshoe of desks.
The 15 students, who range in age from young adult to retired and are from Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Peru, Russia, and Venezuela, answer sometimes in unison, and other times only after being called on by the smiling Magpal.
After one student stumbles, she tells him, "You'll get used to it, don't worry."
The class is one of four per week (two for beginners and two for intermediates) offered by the library, which also matches students with tutors for one-to-one instruction and provides learning materials and meeting space for both classes and tutoring sessions.
The Milford library is one of many libraries around Boston's western suburbs and the country that have taken on a new mission -- teaching immigrants English.
The library had focused for years on teaching reading and writing to native English speakers. But librarians saw a decrease in demand for adult literacy programs, along with an increase in students with learning disabilities, a group that staff and volunteers were ill-equipped to help.
The few native English-speaking students the library had "were not really making much progress," said reference and outreach librarian Anne Berard, who coordinates the library's ESL program.
"It's not to say that we no longer recognize that basic literacy is an issue for many people," said Berard. "It continues to be, and we try to refer them to a group that has more resources in place for that."
The growth in ESL offerings at libraries in response to a growing demand over the past 15 to 20 years -- and a concurrent decline in traditional adult literacy programs -- is a nationwide trend, said American Library Association president Leslie Burger.
Programs in the Globe West circulation area are typically grass-roots affairs, sharing many common traits: The tutors are volunteers, the instruction is free, there's more demand for one-on-one tutoring than group classes, and there are many, many more students than people to teach them.
At the Framingham Public Library, 260 tutors are matched up with 319 students, with eight-week "Survival English" classes also offered as a stopgap for those who are on the waiting list for tutoring. Interestingly, in Framingham and elsewhere, the tutors are not required to be fluent in any foreign languages.
"In some ways, it's an advantage not to know the language of your student, because you tend to rely on that more," said Sherry Glatfelter, who works in the library's Literacy Unlimited program. "We do have some tutors who are nonnative speakers, but for the most part they are native speakers."
In Wayland, the Free Public Library's program has matched more than 200 students with tutors over the past 16 years. The program at the Newton Free Library has 250 students.
The growth in ESL programs is part of another nationwide trend of libraries evolving into community centers, according to Burger.
"One of the things that we recognize is that libraries are really places of opportunity, and we've also recognized that people learn in many different ways," said Burger. People still go to libraries to check out books or ask a question of a reference librarian, she said, but now they've also become places to learn job skills, meet with their neighbors, or attend a class.
"We've really broadened a lot of what we do, and think about libraries as a place for lifelong learning now," she said.
The programs draw people from a variety of backgrounds. In Wayland, many of the students have been workers at a nearby Whole Foods store, while in Newton, a number of students have been researchers at local hospitals who may be fluent in the language of their work, but not in everyday English.
In Waltham, the library doesn't organize ESL programs, but offers space to other organizations that do. Assistant director Kate Tranquada said the library has also beefed up its collection of English language guides and non-English books and magazines in recent years.
"It may be that we've been serving that group more; I don't know that the need has changed as much as our realization that we could actually play a role," she said.
Magpal, the instructor in Milford, is a native of London who has been tutoring since her college days. A medical technician by day, Magpal has been a part of the library's literacy programs for 20 years, and regularly sees former students of the ESL program around town.
Their presence sends Magpal a message. Most of them came to the library to learn English so they could get a job; the fact that she sees them on the street means that they're making it in America.
"Once they start learning, and they start getting jobs, they pick up really fast after that," she said as she walks out of the classroom barely a step ahead of librarians closing the building down that Tuesday night. "It's my passion, really -- I just love to see their faces."