Practicing asking and answering the question, “What is your name?”
All I know is that learning a second language is not easy, especially when it’s English. Here in Medellin there is a huge push from the government to improve the level of English that students are getting in schools, by training teachers, providing immersion experiences, etc. I was just in a meeting yesterday with two people who head up the bilingual program for the city of Medellin and they are moving forward in many exciting ways.
The Covenant has the opportunity to help children and adults learn ESL, which will open up doors for higher education and employment. The different Covenant elementary schools are committed to teaching English to their students and churches in the USA have a variety of ways that they can partner with these schools. These schools are in need of people who will spend time conversing and practicing English with the teachers so that they are able to teach better pronunciation. There is also the opportunity to work directly with the students, giving them the opportunity to hear English from native English speakers, which is a huge benefit for them. Other ways churches can partner with these schools is by helping them to acquire books and resources for ESL.
This past week we had the privilege of having a team of youth and adults here from Stockton, CA who spent a week at the Covenant Elementary School (CEIP). They worked with children in all grades (Kindergarten-5th) helping them to learn the basic question and answers – “What is your name?” “My name is…” “How are you?” “I am hungry.” While it got very repetitive for the team, and while it might have seemed very basic, it was a huge encouragement and help to the students. It enabled them to hear English spoken by native speakers and allowed them to practice using common questions and phrases. I don’t even know how many times the volunteers from CA repeated the question “What is your name?” – a lot – but the repetition didn’t get old for the children and only helped them to grow in their ability to understand and speak English.
Warm-up! The kids loved singing “Head, shoulders, knees and toes.”
Small group time, with activities to practice the new vocal
We are excited to have teams coming down in April, May and July to continue to work with the students at CEIP, as well as the schools in Barranquilla. There are more opportunities for other teams to come. Contact us if you’re interested.
