Students from Briercrest College normally visit the Moose Jaw Multicultural Centre (MJMC) to teach English to immigrants, but those newcomers visited the college recently to experience a new learning environment.
The Caronport-based school’s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program hosted the Moose Jaw Multicultural Centre Comes to Briercrest event on April 5. Twelve of the multicultural centre’s immigrant and refugee learners took their morning classes in Caronport instead of Moose Jaw.
Ginny McColl, a 2012 TESOL grad and director of the Language Instruction to Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program at the MJMC, initiated the event. In turn, David Catterick, TESOL, associate professor of applied linguistics, and his wife Sandra TESOL practicum supervisor in applied linguistics, welcomed the guests and provided them with a campus tour.
Briercrest president Michael Pawelke also welcomed the leaners during the gathering.
The event enabled the TESOL students to gain valuable teaching experience, while the guests could experience a new learning environment. To give the regular MJMC teacher a break, Briercrest practicum students Laura Korthuis and Olivia Mowchenko taught two 50-minute English classes.
Teaching the MJMC learners was a great experience, while the learners and their teachers were friendly and made it easy to teach in the classroom, said Mowchenko. She was touched when one student shared a story of feeling nervous when first teaching in their home country.
Hearing that story helped Mowchenko appreciate how hard immigrants are working on learning English and transitioning to life in Canada. She also commended them for their efforts to learn despite the language barrier.
“Learning English is not an easy task either,” she continued, adding she respected the students’ efforts and hope they made more joy-filled trips to Briercrest in the future.
LINC instructor Laura Butts said she received plenty of positive feedback from the students after their visit.
“They remembered many details (about) the lessons and the student-teachers and where they are going this summer for their internship,” she said, noting the students particularly like the tour and learning about the school’s programs and were thrilled to speak with the Cattericks.
David Catterick agreed that the event went well and that the MJMC students enjoyed themselves.
He pointed out that the multicultural centre is an important practicum and learning partner for the TESOL program, and while the centre hosted several Briercrest TESOL internship students during the past year, it was great to return the favour and invite their teachers and students to campus for a day of class and to enjoy some hospitality.
At noon, the guests and practicum students gathered in the Jensen Banquet Room for lunch for an hour before the immigrants left the college and returned to Moose Jaw.
“The students who were fasting for Ramadan said they really appreciated the games and activities offered over the lunch period,” McColl said, “and those that attended the lunch said that they enjoyed all the food options.”
For more information about Briercrest College’s TESOL program, visit www.briercrest.ca.
