Tutor Training

Tutor training is once again upon us. If you or someone you know would like to volunteer a few hours of your time a week to help someone improve their English, please contact us. You can register online.

The training will begin this Saturday, October 22. Materials will be provided.

Family Culture, Crafts, and Cuisine - Asian Heritage

About 75 people of all ages came out to participate in Family Culture, Crafts, and Cuisine - Asian Heritage on September 13.

Three countries in Asia were showcased: Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Thank you to everybody who came out and to those who participated and helped put the evening together.

Tai chi demonstration



Arts and crafts



Storytime




Thai, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese displays


Snacks and beverages

Family Culture, Crafts, and Cuisine - Hispanic Heritage

Our first Family Culture, Crafts, and Cuisine night in August was a complete success! We had over 100 people in attendance at the event. Children and parents learned about different Hispanic cultures, enjoyed a cultural storytime, and snacked on some regional snacks (Mexican soda!).

Thank you to everybody who contributed to the event. We couldn't have done it without you.

We had over 100 in attendance at the event!

Traditional attire and crafts/objects from Mexico.


Children participating in storytime with Ms. Linda.





Regional foods to munch and snack on.

Family Culture, Crafts, and Cuisine - Asian Heritage

Date: September 13
Time: 6:30 p.m. - Children's Programming Room

Bring the family and come join us to learn about cultures of the world. This month, ESL students from countries in Asia will present information about their cultures. There will be crafts, activities, story time, and regional snacks will be provided.

Family Culture, Crafts, and Cuisine

Bring the family and come join us for Culture, Crafts, and Cuisine! Each month, starting in August, ESL students will share a little bit of their heritage at the library. Come learn about different cultures from around the world and listen to story time, enjoy activities and crafts, and snack on regional cuisine.

Our first Family Culture, Crafts, and Cuisine (Hispanic heritage) will be on Monday, August 9 at 6:30 p.m. in the Children's Programming room. Hope to see you there!

Citizenship: Passing the Test

Help your students prepare for the new Citizenship Test. Citizenship: Passing the Test provides all of the skill and concepts your students need to pass the civics and literacy tests and prepare for the interview. The program comes in three parts. Each part of the program includes a workbook and audio CDs.

Civics and Literacy Student Book
(Literacy – Low Beginning)

• Material is presented in a visual format
• Students learn words that must be pronounced correctly in spoken answers
• Words key to recognizing and understanding oral civics questions are presented
• Words found on the official spelling list are identified
• Students can review the official USCIS test questions

The Civics and Literacy Audio CD helps students build listening comprehension skills that are critical to passing the civics and literacy tests.

Ready for the Interview
(High-Beginning – Intermediate)

• Students learn to prepare for various interview situations and answer questions from the N-400 application
• Vocabulary and communication skills are reinforced to build student confidence
• Students practice asking to have a question repeated

The Ready for the Interview Audio CD includes exercises to check understanding, sample interview segments, and questions that can be used to practice answering with personal information.

Literacy Skills Workbook
(Literacy – Low Beginning)

• Students learn sounds and names of letters, simple spelling patterns, and sight word recognition
• Writing is taught through modified dictation activities
• Each student page contains a note to the teacher to guide student learning

The Literacy Skills Audio CD provides oral instructions and models for pronunciations of featured words and dictations.

Tutor Training

The quarterly tutor training is coming up right around the corner. We've got a great bunch of tutors and we're always looking to add to the ranks. We're doing all we can to try to get the word out about our need for tutors. If you know anyone who would be interested in volunteering their time, please encourage them to consider becoming an ESL tutor for Largo Public Library.

The ESL training workshop will be held Saturday, July 24, from 10:00-4:00 and Saturday, July 31, from 10:00-4:00. New tutors will need to attend both workshop dates. Materials and refreshments will be provided.

Please register online or by calling Britney Hord at 727-587-6715 ext. 2501. Applications are also available at the circulation desk.

Past tutor training workshops:

World Refugee Day

Largo Public Library hosted this year's Pinellas World Refugee Day on Saturday, June 19, 2010. The celebration included a citizenship ceremony, refugee youth testimonials, and a World Refugee Day awards presentation for refugees and community leaders.

Lady Liberty welcoming everybody in.

The audience listening to a message from
President Obama.

Twenty-five people from thirteen different countries
became naturalized American citizens.


The new citizens taking the oath.

From lfsnet.org:

World Refugee Day is internationally sponsored each year on June 20 by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to celebrate and recognize the courage and experiences of the world’s refugees. The theme for the event was “Refugees of Today, Citizens of Tomorrow.” The international theme is “Home.”

“The international theme of this year’s World Refugee Day, ‘Home,’ reminds us both of what refugees have lost – their home countries and the homes they were forced to flee – as well as what they have found in Florida – a new home country and a new place to call home,” said Hiram A. Ruiz, Director of Refugee Services for the Florida Department of Children and Families. “This World Refugee Day, as we celebrate with our refugee neighbors in their new home, we must also remember the millions of refugees worldwide who have lost their homes but remain stuck in refugee camps, with little hope for any new home.”

Refugees are an integral part of the Tampa Bay community. In the last five years alone, a total of 17,398 refugees were resettled in the region. Refugees in the area come from many countries including Cuba, Haiti, Burma, Iraq and Colombia

Local News Articles:
At local naturalization ceremony, one refugee dreams of citizenship
Naturalization ceremony for 50 Bay area refugees
Refugee students become citizens

Phonetics is the key.

Does your student have trouble pronouncing certain sounds? Do you have difficulty explaining how the student should produce the sound?

Different languages have different speech patterns. Sometimes, a student will have difficulty with the same sounds because those sounds just aren't used in their native language. This makes it rather difficult to learn how to pronounce words correctly.

The handouts below will help in identifying your student's phonetic problem areas.

Phonetics/articulation chart (PDF)
Pair-work exercise for TESOL Instructors (PDF)

Paired with Phonetics: The Sounds of American English, developed by the University of Iowa, you should have a better grasp of how certain sounds are produced. Each consonant and vowel has its own articulation animation, a step-by-step description, and video-audio of the sound spoken in context.

(Make sure you have Flash installed on your computer.)

Additional Resources:
Authentic American Pronunciation
Some Techniques for Teaching Pronunciation

Talk-a-Tivities

Talk-a-Tivities: Problem Solving and Puzzles for Pairs by Richard Yorkey

Talk-a-Tivities is a collection of activities that gets students to practice their communication and listening skills, sharpen their reasoning abilities, build their vocabularies, and deal with practical survival skills. Most of the activities in this workbook are designed for pairs of students, with some group activities included, also.

The puzzle and problem situations include strip stories, picture differences, cooperative crosswords, appointment book contexts, survival skill practice in supermarkets and libraries, and map activities. Emphasized vocabulary covers direction words, letter names, numbers, occupations, times and dates, clothing, foods, and household objects.

All activities develop listening and speaking skills through the transmission of information from person to person. Specific language functions include: asking for clarification, describing details and locations, discussing alternatives, giving directions, making appointments, interpreting diagrams, and understanding grids.

Useful Links

The websites below provide tips for tutors, lesson plans, activities, etc.

• EL/Civics Online Citizenship and naturalization lesson planning.
• Dave's ESL Cafe The Internet's meeting place for ESL students and teachers.
• ESL Party Land English activities, interactive quizzes, lesson plans and more.
• One Stop English Hundreds of prepared lessons, guided reading worksheets and many other free resources.
• Everything ESL Download classroom activities, discussion topics, lesson plans, teaching tips and more.
• Activities for ESL Students Over 1,000 ESL activities.
• English for All English For All is a free Web-based multimedia system for adults learning English as a second language
• Literacy4All Free literacy resources for tutors and students.
• English Club Cambridge's English Club is a full-service portal for English-language learners. There are resources for teaching as well as learning. Users can join EC for free.
  
• English Page Advanced English lessons.
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Educator and volunteer resources.
  

Transparent English Library Edition

Software: Transparent English: Library Edition (This is a title for Spanish speakers.)

Have a student with access to a personal computer?

Transparent English uses a USB device to deliver an integrative approach to learning English for beginning to intermediate students. The program focuses on vocabulary and then on using the words and phrases learned. The software includes over 15,000 words, native speaker pronunciations, videos, games, progress tracking, and more.

To run the program, all you have to do is insert the USB "key" and install the program onto your computer. The USB key must remain in the computer for the program to run. The program will track and save your progress as you work your way through the exercises. Best of all, you can check out Transparent English at a later date and it will remember your progress (as long as you keep the program on your computer).

The program is compatible with Windows XP SP2, Vista, or higher and Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher.

Software titles can be checked out for 28 days at a time and can be renewed twice (as long as there aren't holds on the item). Transparent English (LITERACY 428.3421) can be found on the second floor of the library in the ESL Collection.

ESOL Community Resource Fair

Largo Public Library hosted Pinellas County Schools' 3rd ESOL Community Resource Fair for refugees and immigrant families living in Pinellas County on Tuesday, May 18, 2010.

The resource fair offered families information about assistance and services available to them in Pinellas County, such as job placement and resume assistance, health care services for the uninsured, interpreting services, after-school programs, and legal issues and citizenship.

Other Community Resources

If your ESL student is interested in more structured learning in a classroom setting, Pinellas County Schools offers free English classes for adults at these locations:

- Clearwater Adult Education Center
540 S. Hercules Ave.
Clearwater, FL 33764
(727) 469-4190

- Dixie Hollins Adult Education Center
4940 62nd St. N
St. Petersburg, FL 33709
(727) 547-7872

- Lakewood Community School
1400 54th Ave. S
St. Petersburg, FL 33705
(727) 893-2955

- Northeast Community School
1717 54th Ave. N
St. Petersburg, FL 33714
(727) 570-3193

- Tomlinson Adult Learning Center
296 Mirror Lake Dr. N
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
(727) 893-2723

- Palm Harbor Community School
1900 Omaha St.
Palm Harbor, FL 34683
(727) 669-1140

Helpful Handouts

One of our tutors compiled a couple lists of common problem areas for ESL students. Please feel free to share these with your students.

American Slang
Homonyms (commonly confused words)

ESL Potluck

Thank you to everybody who made it out to our second ESL Potluck on Monday, April 26. Tutors, students, and their families enjoyed conversation and dishes from different corners of the world.

It was a great opportunity to get everybody from ESL together and to celebrate the diversity in our program.

We've got students from all over the world.

We've got tutors from all over the country, too!

Everybody enjoying the food.

Largo Public Library ESL Program Mission and Goals

- To create and promote an independent and successful ESL tutoring program at Largo Public Library.

-To train and support qualified volunteers to act as ESL tutors in the community.

- To promote the ESL program in a way that effectively notifies the public of this free service.

- To make ESL tutoring services as convenient as possible for those in need.

- To match the tutors and students effectively based on individual needs and assessments and qualifications of the tutor.

- To create accessibility to ESL services by providing one-on-one tutoring, small group sessions, conversation groups, and other activities.