By TAMARA DELANEY

Freeport News Reporter

tdelaney@nasguard.com

In an attempt to improve English Language programmes in schools, the Department of Education yesterday began a two-day English as a Second Language (ESL) workshop for Grand Bahama's teachers.

Over 40 teachers from 11 schools across the island participated in the six-hour development sessions, which took place in the ballroom of the Our Lucaya Resort.

Teachers were guided through an all-day session on how to teach four linguistic skills in the same order that natural language and learning occurs.

The professional sessions included an upgrade of the English language for teachers in schools that carry a high percentage of non-English speaking students.

With an increasing number of these students who come from non-English speaking homes or English language deficient environments, some teachers thought the workshop would help execute successful programmes in schools.

"Our school carries 60 per cent or more of Creole-speaking students and this workshop is essential because we need learning strategies for those students," said Jacqueline Pinder, vice principal of Lewis Yard Primary.

Pinder said that the highlight of the workshop is the ESL models because it allows teachers to see students in a different light with new materials.

She noted that the agenda would help Bahamian students to speak proper English and avoid dialect or slang.

"We don't want our students to get comfortable with speaking slang in the schools and forgetting the correct guidelines of English; therefore, the workshop is important," said Pinder.

The vice principal said that the new school year for Lewis Yard Primary will be exciting because it puts the English programme on edge with its different approach.

Patricia Ennis, an English teacher at Eight Mile Rock High School, said that due to the high percentage of non-English speaking students, the institution has been met with frustrated teachers.

She said, however, that the workshop serves the challenges that teachers face with non-English speaking students and their English curriculum.

"This workshop is important because it helps us as teachers who are unable to move on with students like Bahamian-Haitians, that face intellectual obstacles," she explained.

Ennis said that the programme shows teachers how to address certain problems so that they themselves can understand and meet specific needs of the students.

Facilitator Mario Herrera, an educator for Pearson Education Caribbean, lectured teachers on the fundamentals of ESL.

"ESL is English learnt by non-native or language deficient native students to facilitate listening, speaking reading and writing skills," Herrera told the group. "It is not remediation, nor a resource room programme. It is instruction that fills in information gaps for students whose main challenge is overcoming a language barrier."

UPGRADING THE LANGUAGE — Mario Herrera, an educator for the Pearson Education Caribbean, lectures Grand Bahama teachers on the fundamentals of English as a Second Language, at the start of a two-day workshop being held to upgrade English Language programmes in schools that have of non-English speaking students.(Photo taken by TAMARA DELANEY)