English Second Language

I have been having a special experience teaching English as a second language at the University Autonoma Santo Domingo (UASD) Institute.  There are 15-25 students who attend each Tuesday afternoon from 5:00-6:30pn.  I have a few returned missionaries who want to expand their English skills they learned from their USA missionary companions or from the Disney channel.  We laugh as I kid them that they learned Mickey Mouse English!!

Many students have never spoken English before, so the challenge at times is the range of abilities from zero English to those who can carry on a reasonable conversation.  The first thing I taught them was Saludos (Greetings) and how to pray in English.  Now into the 5th week, several students have given a basic prayer in English, can greet you and say a few phrases.  I tell them in Spanish, "Excellent-Excellente or Perfect-Perfecto"  They are so proud.  We learn the alphabet, vocabulary words and watch many pronunciation videos downloaded from the internet, write short sentences, and speak etc.   The latest technique to teach vocabulary and pronunciation is singing.  We sing church hymns and fun English songs.  Their favorite song so far is Old MacDonald Had a Farm E-I-E-I-O.  They love to insert words into the spaces, "...an on this farm he had a ____"  They also like the song B-I-N-G-O and BINGO was his name-o.  Great spirit and great students.  What is rewarding is they come up to you in the hallway during the week and speak English.  A huge grin comes when they realize they are learning. Sister Park and I also ask them to teach us and help us with our Spanish pronunciation and vocabulary.  It works both ways!  This is another special experience helping young people to be successful in life.  Knowing English will help them get better jobs.  Peggy and I feel blessed beyond our understanding!  Randy