tafe sa english language services · pdf filetafe sa english language services (els) november,...

elsnewsTAFE SA English Language Services (ELS)

November, 2010

TAFE SA English Language Services (ELS)Rundle Mall Campus, 5th Floor Renaissance Centre127 Rundle Mall, Adelaide, South Australia 5000Phone 8226 6555Fax 8226 6882Email [email protected]

Enthusiasm, Learning and Success

Enthusiasm, Learning and Success

This year students attended GRADUATION CEREMONIES in June and August. Jeff Taylor and Danny McAteer presented Certificates in Spoken and Written English on behalf of DIAC (Department of Immigration and Citizenship), at the Adelaide College of the Arts. Guest speakers included some of our ELS students too!

Extracts from Denise Farias’s speech:

When I first started Certificate 3 at ELS I was very excited about improving my English, but during the course I realised that it was also helping me learn about lots of different aspects of living in Australia… Also at ELS, I met incredible people from different backgrounds and cultures which made this experience more interesting and special...Now I’m studying Child Care full-time at TAFE… It was a lot of fun learning at ELS as well as being very helpful and useful. Left: Danny McAteer and Denise, August 2010

ELS staff and students at the Graduation Ceremony, June 2010

2 Funded by the Australian Government, Department of Immigration andCitizenship through the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP).

2010: A New Decade2010: A New Decade

A Message from the Educational Manager: Renee Wyatt

Contents:

Contact Details: ELS Cover 1

ELS Reception Renee’s Message 2

Renaissance Centre 8226 6555 Editor’s Message 3

Celebrations 4

Light Square 8207 8805 Success Story 5

Salisbury 8207 9861 Library News 6

Noarlunga 8207 3936 Community Class 7

Evening Program 8, 9

Website: www.els.sa.edu.au Staff News 10

Email: [email protected] Staff News 11

Vocational Training 12

It doesn’t seem very long since I wished you all a happy 2010, in the first ELS News for this year. But here we are already nearing the end of 2010! It seems that time goes a little bit faster every year! This year has seen an amazing number of natural disasters around the world: floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, droughts and of course, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In Australia, we have seen our own disasters: fires, droughts, floods and minor earthquakes. On the positive side, we have recently seen rain to a level not seen for years…a great thing for the country, for our rivers and our farmers and, of course, for our gardens!! Other significant events in Australia have been Jessica Watson’s solo trip around the world (wasn’t she brave!), a volatile state election earlier this year, political leaders suddenly changing a couple of months ago, and a federal election still without an outcome over two weeks after we went to the ballot boxes creating a most unusual and interesting situation in Australia. Throughout the year in Adelaide, we have been spoilt by a range of theatre, music and dance activities, car races, food and wine festivals, and many other treats. I’m sure many of you took advantage of some of these riches. As I write this, the Adelaide Royal Show is in full swing. I hope you will be able to visit this great Australian institution with your children this year or some time in the future … it’s a lot of fun for the young ones and very informative for older people. As we begin Term 4 in ELS, we are all hoping that ELS will be successful in winning a further AMEP contract with the Department of Immigration. There will be many changes in the AMEP in 2011 and we hope that ELS will continue to be a provider of this program for South Australia. TAFE SA ELS has been delivering the AMEP for DIAC since the 1970s and is very proud of its program and services. Hopefully, I can write to you in the next edition of ELS News and tell you that we will be delivering this program in the future! Have an enjoyable and productive Term 4 at ELS and enjoy the summer holiday to follow. We hope to see you next year!


2009 has been an exciting and busy year for ELS! In addition to our regular program of English

classes and settlement information, support services have been really busy helping students:

there has been a lot of activity in the JASH Unit, with hundreds of students going there to get

help with their job search and job interview skills as well as resumé writing

the Study Centre has been very busy helping students with their computer skills and with

additional study

Reception staff and Educational Counsellors have seen many new students and helped

them enrol or referred them to other programs

Centrelink, Migrant Health Services, ARA and ARA Jobs have all contributed to making

ELS a ‘one stop shop’ for students by visiting us every week for a few hours

Bilingual Support staff, valuable as always, have been available to students and teachers

who needed interpreting and translating help

Special vocational courses, with English support, have been offered to many students at different

times through the year:

IT Studies course at Adelaide City Campus

Aged Care course at Panorama

Hospitality course at Noarlunga

Job Pathways Program in the Renaissance Centre

The Job Pathways Program has been very successful with all students doing about two weeks of work

experience in different industries and many students winning jobs after this. Students outside the Renaissance

Centre are always welcome to come along and use all the services available but we realise that it’s a long way

to come. So sometimes, services try to come to you. So there have been regular visits of JASH staff to

Salisbury, for example, to help students there with their employment goals and their settlement needs.

In addition to the normal program, of course, most teachers have taken their students on interesting and

enjoyable excursions, where they have learnt a lot of things that are very difficult to learn in a classroom. And

in addition, there have been special events that students could join, such as the ‘Big Morning Tea’ for the

Cancer Council of SA at Salisbury and the morning tea visit of South Australian Premier, Mike Rann and his

cabinet’s to the Campbelltown Uniting Church. The Campbelltown Community Class was invited to share the

morning tea and met the Premier. Please see photos later in ELS News…

At the end of this term, we will all get a long holiday and we’ll come back to school at the end of January. I

hope you enjoy the break with your friends and families; have a wonderful time, enjoy the summer and the hot

weather activities, be safe and come back refreshed for another year.

If this is your last term at ELS, we really hope that you will continue to succeed and achieve – whether this

means further study or a job or other activity. We hope you enjoyed your time here and that we helped you with

your English and with information for living in your adopted country!

*******************************************************************************

Michael was the person who suggested that we should have this student newsletter – ELS News! And Pam’s ‘Teaching House’ will soon be on permanent display in the Activity Room in the Renaissance Centre. We will always value the contributions these teachers made to our community at ELS.

Welcome to our second newsletter for 2010. You can read about some of the exciting and informative activities our ELS students have been involved in, such as, a community expo, Adult Learner’s Week, classroom cricket, learning in a country town, volunteering, and more. This issue also highlights the talents of ELS staff and students - with a photographic exhibition, successful careers, and the benefits of the Job Pathways Program, (a program combining language instruction, job seeking skills and work placements). Of course the end of the year brings the Christmas celebration. So Merry Christmas to all and have a safe and happy holiday!

Michael Loak was born in China and moved to Malaysia when he was a young boy. He was determined to become a teacher, and eventually trained in London. He and his family came to Adelaide in 1989, and Michael taught Maths and Indonesian in public schools. He became a teacher at ELS after he retired! We will always remember him as a warm, committed professional teacher, always making us laugh, and teaching us something new. Someone said: ‗He had an urgent desire that people should flourish.‘ This is how we will remember him.

Pam Marlow was a wonderful, caring, creative and generous teacher. She taught English in community classes, in the Renaissance Centre and brought her skills and enthusiasm as a First Aid teacher to train both students and staff. We discovered, almost by accident, that Pam was a highly-skilled model-maker. She made ‗The Teaching House‘ for our students to understand how gas and water pipes, electricity cables and phone lines link to our houses from the street. If you visit Burra in the Mid-North of South Australia, you can see Pam‘s large model of this copper mining town in the early 19th Century.

In May this year, ELS staff and students received news of the death of two of our much loved teachers.

2010: A New Decade


Contents:

Contact Details: ELS Cover 1

ELS Reception Renee’s Message 2

Renaissance Centre 8226 6555 Editor’s Message 3

Celebrations 4

Light Square 8207 8805 Success Story 5

Salisbury 8207 9861 Library News 6

Noarlunga 8207 3936 Community Class 7

Evening Program 8, 9

Website: www.els.sa.edu.au Staff News 10

Email: [email protected] Staff News 11

Vocational Training 12

It doesn’t seem very long since I wished you all a happy 2010, in the first ELS News for this year. But here we are already nearing the end of 2010! It seems that time goes a little bit faster every year! This year has seen an amazing number of natural disasters around the world: floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, droughts and of course, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In Australia, we have seen our own disasters: fires, droughts, floods and minor earthquakes. On the positive side, we have recently seen rain to a level not seen for years…a great thing for the country, for our rivers and our farmers and, of course, for our gardens!! Other significant events in Australia have been Jessica Watson’s solo trip around the world (wasn’t she brave!), a volatile state election earlier this year, political leaders suddenly changing a couple of months ago, and a federal election still without an outcome over two weeks after we went to the ballot boxes creating a most unusual and interesting situation in Australia. Throughout the year in Adelaide, we have been spoilt by a range of theatre, music and dance activities, car races, food and wine festivals, and many other treats. I’m sure many of you took advantage of some of these riches. As I write this, the Adelaide Royal Show is in full swing. I hope you will be able to visit this great Australian institution with your children this year or some time in the future … it’s a lot of fun for the young ones and very informative for older people. As we begin Term 4 in ELS, we are all hoping that ELS will be successful in winning a further AMEP contract with the Department of Immigration. There will be many changes in the AMEP in 2011 and we hope that ELS will continue to be a provider of this program for South Australia. TAFE SA ELS has been delivering the AMEP for DIAC since the 1970s and is very proud of its program and services. Hopefully, I can write to you in the next edition of ELS News and tell you that we will be delivering this program in the future! Have an enjoyable and productive Term 4 at ELS and enjoy the summer holiday to follow. We hope to see you next year!

3Funded by the Australian Government, Department of Immigration andCitizenship through the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP).

2010: A New Decade

*******************************************************************************






From the Editor:

*******************************************************************************






Susie Osborne


CelebrationsCelebrations

Special Weeks We Celebrate

In Australian society, many organizations advertise their work at special times of the year. ELS chooses to be part of Harmony Day every March, Refugee Week every June and Adult Learners’ Week every September. Refugee Week: We celebrated Refugee Week with a Community Expo at the Renaissance Centre. Many agencies and our Bilingual Settlement Officers (BSO‘s) attended. Over 600 students from 30 AMEP day classes and all their teachers visited the expo, as well as several evening students. Students were given information and brochures to help with their settlement, for example, health, education, safety and immigration. The Expo was very successful with lots of positive feedback.

Adult Learner’s Week: To celebrate all the adult learners at ELS, several classes made music in Rundle Mall. Around our tent, there were balloons, flags from many countries, maps and photos showing where we come from and who we are. We heard songs from the Philippines, Iran, India, Bhutan and Congo, watched some rap-dancing from Liberia and listened to music from the Capoeira Angola tradition, (dating from the slave trade in Latin America). ELS teacher, Gillian Hunter, led her classes in songs that brought tears to the eyes of people passing by. Do you know these words?

We are one, but we are many, and from all the lands on earth we come. We share a dream and sing with one voice: ‘I am, you are, we are Australian.’

(Bruce Woodley)


Student Success Story

Dear Helga, The first time our class visited the Volunteer SA Office, we heard Kaye, who is the manager of Volunteer SA, talk about volunteer jobs. I was really interested in becoming a volunteer. When I came home I looked at a volunteer website and I applied for a job at my local library but I didn’t get an interview with the library. The second time we had lunch at Volunteer SA, I talked to some of the volunteers who work there, and you introduced Kaye to me. A few days later the Volunteer Office called and gave me an appointment for an interview for a job. On the day I had the interview, I went there and filled in some forms. After that a woman who interviewed me she showed me four jobs, but I thought all of the jobs didn’t suit me, for example: some jobs were very far from my house - I would have had to catch two buses; or there was an animal welfare job in which I’d have to look after a dog that was born at 5 months and then in two years’ time, give the dog back (because the dog helps blind people), but I didn’t like this job because I would miss the dog very much. When I came home, with my husband’s help, we found another volunteer website. I typed in my postcode and community service/health/welfare, and then I found a Salvation Army job in Salisbury that I liked and so I clicked on the ‘express interest’ box. One week later the Salvation Army shop called me and they gave me an appointment for an interview.

I now work there 3 hours per week and also learn English in Certificate 3. When I finish Certificate 3, I am going to work more hours for the Salvation Army. My responsibilities are: to collect clothes, glasses, cups, books, toys, put prices on items and hang clothes up on racks. Every week on Thursday from 9 am to 12noon, I walk the 3kms to the shop and it takes me 40 minutes. I could catch a bus but I don’t want to because I like walking and I want to keep healthy. I am very happy to

work there because I don’t want to stay home doing nothing. I want to experience working in a job, meeting people, and speaking and understanding English. I want to work hard, and feel personal enjoyment. When I work there I get to know more English, English idioms, and I feel more confident in my life in Australia.

Regards,

Nha Thanh Dinh(student, Certificate 3)

Student Success Story

A Letter to a Teacher about Volunteering


At the Renaissance Centre Library

Pictured above are: Jing Huang, Xiu Jiang Xue, Hong Yan Zhou, and Robina Yaday practising conversation with volunteer tutors, Eva and Pat Marzahn.

All current ELS students are welcome to use the ELS Library. In the ELS Library collection there are many useful resources for learning English. There are books, kits, audio-cassettes, CDs, videos and newspapers.

Thanks to the ELS Home Tutor Scheme, there are two additional and very popular free services available to students in the ELS Library (as pictured here): • Conversation under the Umbrella • Reading corner with Barbara

In the Open Access area in the Library, students can use computers to improve their English using different language programs, improve their typing and/or computing skills, check emails and use the internet. The library staff (Christine, Halina and Marie), are always happy to help students find the books or materials they need to improve their skills, for example, in speaking, listening, grammar, writing etc. If students are not sure which resources are suitable for them, they can ask the library staff for advice and assistance. The Reading Corner – volunteer tutor

Barbara Boxer with Mohammad Zolghadr. Barbara has been helping in the library for five years and says, “I love helping students gain confidence in reading.”

At the Renaissance Centre Library Home Tutors and the Library

Pictured above are: Jing Huang, Xiu Jiang Xue, Hong Yan Zhou, and Robina Yaday practising conversation with volunteer tutors, Eva and Pat Marzahn.

All current ELS students are welcome to use the ELS Library. In the ELS Library collection there are many useful resources for learning English. There are books, kits, audio-cassettes, CDs, videos and newspapers.

Thanks to the ELS Home Tutor Scheme, there are two additional and very popular free services available to students in the ELS Library (as pictured here): • Conversation under the Umbrella • Reading corner with Barbara

In the Open Access area in the Library, students can use computers to improve their English using different language programs, improve their typing and/or computing skills, check emails and use the internet. The library staff (Christine, Halina and Marie), are always happy to help students find the books or materials they need to improve their skills, for example, in speaking, listening, grammar, writing etc. If students are not sure which resources are suitable for them, they can ask the library staff for advice and assistance. The Reading Corner – volunteer tutor

Barbara Boxer with Mohammad Zolghadr. Barbara has been helping in the library for five years and says, “I love helping students gain confidence in reading.”

At the Renaissance Centre Library Home Tutors and the Library


In the CommunityIn The Community

The Murray Bridge Class

As the teacher of this class, I am most appreciative of the work of the two volunteer tutors who assist me. Debbie Lawrence drives 65 kms from Purnong to Murray Bridge every Thursday. Although Debbie has only been working with me for a short time, her friendly nature and excellent rapport with the students makes it feel that she has been here all year! On Friday Hakim Oerton drives from Mt Barker and sometimes even brings a homemade cake (and the copies of the recipe) to share at the morning break. Hakim’s sense of Australian humour at times leaves the students a little confused but opens the door for a discussion on the Australian way of life! He is certainly a wonderful support. As the students live, work and study in Murray Bridge, I plan the work around local issues but am also aware there are times that they go to Adelaide and so need to be informed about city life too. This term, when we were studying maps and directions, I organized an orienteering exercise around the retail area of Murray Bridge. Students were in small groups and had to follow the directions and find various pieces of information on their way. Some of the activities included finding a house for sale between $175,000 and $225,000 at the real estate agent, finding the price of spring rolls at the Asian Takeaway, the headlines on the Advertiser at the newsagent, the inscription on the Australia Remembers Memorial in the park, and reading street signs. They particularly enjoyed going to the travel agent and asking for a brochure and then showing their native countries on the large world map on the wall.

Alison Barr, Teacher

The ELS class at Murray Bridge is held every Thursday and Friday morning in the Migrant Resource Centre, and close to a Childcare Centre. The ELS students are a very enthusiastic group from diverse backgrounds – Sri Lanka, India, Afghanistan, Sudan, China, Bhutan and Iran – and they relate well to each other. They are studying at all certificate levels, which is usually the case for community classes.

Front row ( from left) Tirtha, Fereshteh, Amanda, Pabritra, Thalatha, Manjula and Abdul. Back row ( from left) Alison Barr (teacher), Janet, Parsu, Krishna, Amuor and Adut.

Students outside the newsagent writing the headlines from The Advertiser.

On our walk around Murray Bridge the students had to find out the names of the movies being shown at the Cameo

Theatre.


Evening ProgramA Cricket Evening Marijke Genet, a teacher in the Evening Program, invited her daughter's boyfriend, who is an ex-State cricketer, to come and speak to her class. Marijke said afterwards that it was a hoot and the students loved it. Here is a report by one of her students:

My name is Kae and I am studying English in Marijke's class in the Evening Program. On the last evening of Term 1 we had a party. We all brought food from our own countries, but the highlight was a visit from Marijke's daughter Alicia and her boyfriend Jason. Jason used to play cricket for the State team and County cricket in England. Now he plays for Sturt and they won the competition this season. I was really excited to meet him because I had never met a famous sports player before.

He came to class after we finished eating and taught us the basic rules of cricket. We had prepared some questions, and the question I wanted to know was why cricket players rub the ball on the front of their trousers. He told us that they do that to polish the ball so it is more accurate. He showed us what cricket players have to wear when they are batting. He got Nimfa to put on the suit which was incredibly funny because she is very small and the suit is for a tall man like Jason. When he gave her the safety part of the suit, which is for protecting a man's genitals, we all killed ourselves laughing. Afterwards, Sergey had to put the suit on all by himself. He is just as tall as Jason, so the suit fitted him but he got some of it wrong, which again was hilarious. We found it a most informative evening and we thanked him for coming and explaining cricket to us.

Kae Kwon

Evening Program


Evening ProgramThe Evening Program Students Go to a Footy Match Following on from the successful cricket demonstration, I approached the SANFL (South Australian National Football League), to see if they had a volunteer to speak to our Certificate 3 class about football. Peter Cates, who is the Inclusive Programs Manager, came to speak to all the evening students and again, it was a great success. He offered tickets to the Port Power Vs Richmond match on the 29th May and many students wanted to go. Below is a report on the trip that one of my students wrote afterwards. Marijke Genet, Teacher

First time to AAMI stadium Football is part of the Australian culture and also part of Australian life. Therefore, it was a wonderful opportunity to go to AAMI stadium on 29th of May to watch Port Adelaide (Power) vs Richmond (Tigers). It was a special day as it was the 140th birthday of Port Power. Port Power was very generous in giving us free entry tickets and even though it was pouring with rain, windy and cold, most of our class was there, dressed in plastic coats trying to keep dry. We

thought it was going to be very busy, but unfortunately the weather kept many people away. The match started at 2.30pm in pouring rain and the slippery oval looked like a shallow swimming pool. The players were slipping and sliding and we were most disappointed to see the Richmond team take control of the match after a few minutes. We were waiting to hear something from the Port Power fans and indeed they started to show that they were not happy with the game and they shouted, “Come on guys...” and “Boooooooooooo!” and others words I cannot print here. Our first football experience was a little disappointing because of the weather and Port Power losing, but it was a terrific experience non the less.

Masoud Keikavoosi

Evening Program

The Evening Students Go to a Football Match


Staff NewsStaff News

ELS staff celebrated winning the TAFE 2009 Client Focus Award at a party at the Renaissance Centre this year. Management, teaching and administration staff attended. There were games, prizes, speeches, karaoke, and some dancing too! All in all, lots of fun, and it was also an opportunity for staff to farewell a colleague who had worked for ELS for over 30 years (see story next page).

Celebrating Success at the Renaissance Centre


Staff NewsStaff News Keturah’s Exhibition ELS teacher Keturah de Klerk and her husband Morne, travelled to South Africa to photograph urban and rural communities celebrate the way in which soccer unites communities. The photos they took were displayed in an exhibition in Adelaide this year and many ELS staff members went along to the opening night. The photographs have also been published in a book called Africa’s beautiful game.

————————————————————————————————— Dallas Retires Dallas Jones, ELS teacher and Home Tutor Scheme trainer, who retired in July this year: I started with the AMEP in 1974 and marked English books at home. Then in 1975, I was offered a class teaching Greek and Italian women at the Norwood Primary school once a week, where I could even take my baby daughter to class in a bassinet! I was given a Situational English text book and with no formal training in teaching adults, I was launched into the world of ESL, and I loved it! My fondest memories are my classes out at Salisbury where we had so much fun. Being a smallish community we often met past and present students in the shopping malls and streets and it almost felt like a large family. Just as enjoyable was working in the Home Tutor office with our team and our ‘solve all’ coffee sessions each day, as well as, training and working with our dedicated tutors. My future plans are: travel, see more of our extended families and friends, volunteer somewhere for animals and with Anglicare, and play the odd game of golf, of course! Oh and garden, garden, garden.

Dallas's energy, serenity and unfailing good humour are the qualities we will always appreciate and which put an indelible mark on all the programs she contributed to. We wish her the very best for the

future as well as giving our heartfelt thanks for many wonderful years of shared work at ELS!

Keturah and Morne de Klerk at Gallery 139

—————————————————————————————————

Keturah and Morne de Klerk at Gallery 139


Vocational TrainingVocational Training

Job Pathways Program at TAFE SA Regency Campus

ELS students learning English and Food Handling in the Job Pathways Program have “hands on” practical training as part of their 10 week course at the Regency TAFE Campus. The program is made up of English tuition, practical training in an industrial kitchen, and two week’s work experience. Congratulations to the nine students from Term 3 who have gained employment so far!

Cookery lecturer Robyn Watson and ELS teacher, Natalja Sustrova (on her left), and the happy faces of all involved in the training program!

tafe sa english language services · pdf filetafe sa english language services (els) november,...

Documents