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atricia Burgos comes
to the Cape Fear
Literacy Council to
improve her English
speaking skills.
She moved from Chile to
Wilmington about 11 years ago
with her two daughters.
“I always wanted my daughters
speaking English,” Burgos says.
Burgos, an accountant, can
read English, but knowing when
to practice speaking it can be
challenging. She speaks Spanish
at home so her daughters can
learn both languages.
The literacy council’s
English for Speakers of Other
Languages program helps her
and adult students from other
countries learn and practice
English through classes, per-sonal
tutoring, computer labs
and Skype.
“I want to learn how to speak
English with a lot of people ...”
says Mrs. Nachanan Powell, who
came to North Carolina from
Thailand last year after getting
married.
Powell, who worked as a
secretary in Thailand, can use
computers and type in English,
but she wants to speak the
language better so she can
do more here, learn American
customs and become more con-nected
to other countries.
She drives from Pender
County to the literacy council
for English classes and practices
at home reading books, watch-ing
television, listening to music
and the news, and talking to her
husband.
Zeynep Ōzdemir, a dressmaker
from Turkey, is in Wilmington
helping care for her daughter’s
twin babies.
“I take care of my grandchil-dren,
so I learn English. I live
here,” Ōzdemir says. “I want to
speak perfect English.”
Locally, ESOL students come
from about 37 different coun-tries
and range from people
who never attended school in
their own country to students
with advanced degrees who
can read and write but need
help speaking and understand-ing
various dialects and idioms.
“It’s a very complex skill to be
able to speak fluently in another
language and get your points
across,” ESOL Director Barbara
Biba says. “You have so many
different domains you use your
language on.”
That includes communicating
with doctors, teachers, bankers,
utility workers and landlords,
as well as following street signs
and bus schedules, Biba says.
“The language adults need is
very abstract,” Biba says.
P
C O N V E R S A T I O N S
M A T T E R
It’s a very
complex skill to
be able to speak
fluently in another
language and get
your points across.
You have so many
different domains
you use your
language on.
“
”
Patricia Burgos, Mrs. Nachanan Powell and Zeynep Ōzdemir improve their English speaking
skills in the Cape Fear Literacy Council’s English for Speakers of Other Languages program.
— Barbara Biba
ESOL Director