English Learning
As of October 2011 the Sustainable English Language Program will have its first physical presence in Santiago, Dominican Republic, with the arrival of the project’s coordinators Lila Bibby and Sam Hall.
Aims
Our aims include living and learning within the communities of Santiago, understanding the people and the culture we will be serving and discovering where we can help most. Our ultimate goal is creating a Sustainable English Language Program for underprivileged children. These aims will not be realised in a short period of time, but will instead require patience, commitment, and a great deal of support due to the project’s nature. We hope to be able to provide the communities a service that has been built upon and around their necessities and not created from afar. We will play a part in laying the foundation that will offer a brighter future for many of these children who are not guaranteed the same educational and learning opportunities as many of the rest of us.
The English Learning Program
The English Learning Program is focused on offering Accion Callejera, our partner agency, the chance to collaborate existing programs with GCE efforts. This collaboration between activities currently in place and English language focused learning will enable the communities to acquire some basic knowledge of the English language. Some of the benefits that we expect the program to produce include showing students some of the opportunities available through cultural awareness and learning new languages. Although this contact with English may be new for some individuals in the communities we reach out to, we feel that we will have a positive impact. The program will teach children in community’s new skills, and help in achieving our primary goal of offering children a fun, enjoyable, and ultimately safe learning environment.
Why English?
Having taught English to children of differing backgrounds and nationalities, the project’s coordinators Lila and Sam are of the strong opinion that children thoroughly enjoy learning languages and enthusiastically soak up all that is presented to them. With the right blend of activities, enthusiasm and positive energy children thrive off acquiring new languages, as they perceive the process of learning as fun. The importance of at least a basic knowledge of English in today’s global community is not to be understated. With English commonly perceived as the lingua franca across the world we truly feel that people from all backgrounds should be given the opportunity to learn it in even its simplest form.
Coordinators
Lila has taught English as a foreign language for 6 years in England, France and Spain. After graduating in French & English BA Joint Honours at Manchester University in 2005 she decided to train as an English Language Teacher, completing the Trinity TESOL course in 2006. Lila has since worked as a School Coordinator and Assistant Director of Studies, as well as Teacher, for several private language schools. She has also recently completed her Masters in International Communication, Translation & Interpreting at the University Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain. Having had a long term ambition to work for a non-for-profit organization, as well as a love of working with children, Lila jumped at the opportunity to represent GCE.
“Although my experiences working primarily with children in France and Spain have been fantastic, I feel ready to embark on something new and challenging later this year. Helping, teaching and inspiring those who genuinely need it is something that I am extremely excited about and will be able to realize in my involvement with GCE.”
Sam has taught English as a foreign language since the summer of 2010, following his completion of the CELTA teaching qualification. He is a German & Italian BA Joint Honours graduate, also from Manchester University and is soon to complete a Masters in Global Human Resource Management at Liverpool University come September 2011. His prior working experience was within the multilingual recruitment sector in Germany, where he worked in consultative, leadership and management positions from 2006 to 2010.
“I had wonderful learning experiences in both Frankfurt and Seville, which were very fulfilling, but I feel it is the right time in my life to do something a bit different and the concept of volunteering what I’ve learned over the past 5 years fills me with excitement. Working for GCE in the Dominican Republic is going to be a life changing experience, as well as a chance to develop GCE’s programmes there and I cannot wait to get involved on a full-time basis.”
Aims
Our aims include living and learning within the communities of Santiago, understanding the people and the culture we will be serving and discovering where we can help most. Our ultimate goal is creating a Sustainable English Language Program for underprivileged children. These aims will not be realised in a short period of time, but will instead require patience, commitment, and a great deal of support due to the project’s nature. We hope to be able to provide the communities a service that has been built upon and around their necessities and not created from afar. We will play a part in laying the foundation that will offer a brighter future for many of these children who are not guaranteed the same educational and learning opportunities as many of the rest of us.
The English Learning Program
The English Learning Program is focused on offering Accion Callejera, our partner agency, the chance to collaborate existing programs with GCE efforts. This collaboration between activities currently in place and English language focused learning will enable the communities to acquire some basic knowledge of the English language. Some of the benefits that we expect the program to produce include showing students some of the opportunities available through cultural awareness and learning new languages. Although this contact with English may be new for some individuals in the communities we reach out to, we feel that we will have a positive impact. The program will teach children in community’s new skills, and help in achieving our primary goal of offering children a fun, enjoyable, and ultimately safe learning environment.
Why English?
Having taught English to children of differing backgrounds and nationalities, the project’s coordinators Lila and Sam are of the strong opinion that children thoroughly enjoy learning languages and enthusiastically soak up all that is presented to them. With the right blend of activities, enthusiasm and positive energy children thrive off acquiring new languages, as they perceive the process of learning as fun. The importance of at least a basic knowledge of English in today’s global community is not to be understated. With English commonly perceived as the lingua franca across the world we truly feel that people from all backgrounds should be given the opportunity to learn it in even its simplest form.
Coordinators
Lila has taught English as a foreign language for 6 years in England, France and Spain. After graduating in French & English BA Joint Honours at Manchester University in 2005 she decided to train as an English Language Teacher, completing the Trinity TESOL course in 2006. Lila has since worked as a School Coordinator and Assistant Director of Studies, as well as Teacher, for several private language schools. She has also recently completed her Masters in International Communication, Translation & Interpreting at the University Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain. Having had a long term ambition to work for a non-for-profit organization, as well as a love of working with children, Lila jumped at the opportunity to represent GCE.
“Although my experiences working primarily with children in France and Spain have been fantastic, I feel ready to embark on something new and challenging later this year. Helping, teaching and inspiring those who genuinely need it is something that I am extremely excited about and will be able to realize in my involvement with GCE.”
Sam has taught English as a foreign language since the summer of 2010, following his completion of the CELTA teaching qualification. He is a German & Italian BA Joint Honours graduate, also from Manchester University and is soon to complete a Masters in Global Human Resource Management at Liverpool University come September 2011. His prior working experience was within the multilingual recruitment sector in Germany, where he worked in consultative, leadership and management positions from 2006 to 2010.
“I had wonderful learning experiences in both Frankfurt and Seville, which were very fulfilling, but I feel it is the right time in my life to do something a bit different and the concept of volunteering what I’ve learned over the past 5 years fills me with excitement. Working for GCE in the Dominican Republic is going to be a life changing experience, as well as a chance to develop GCE’s programmes there and I cannot wait to get involved on a full-time basis.”
