Education students Taylor Raby and Darian
Kaszas working together with Miriam using a
picture dictionary.
ELNG 200, a second-year Faculty of Education course,
prepares future teachers to support students learning to
speak, read, and write the English language. As part of the
course, students are required to be involved in 8 -10 hours
of critical service volunteering. However, with approximately
30 students per course looking to fulfil their volunteer
requirements in teaching English as an additional language
(EAL), this requirement can pose a difficulty. Dr. Fatima
Pirbhai-Illich, who teaches the course, says, “Sometimes
students are left scrambling.” For this reason, she began
looking for new venues where her students could volunteer.
Dr. Pirbhai-Illich approached a colleague, Professor Emeritus
Dr. Meredith Cherland, about the needs of her students. It so
happened that due to her position as chair of the Welcoming
the Newcomer Committee for her church, Our Savior’s
Lutheran Church in Regina, Meredith had become aware of
a gap in English language classes. She had met 18-year-old
Finda Sam and her husband Amos Kamato, and their baby
boy at church.
S am and D
r. F at im a P ir b h a
i - Illi c
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EAL student Finda Sam working on her English
skills with U of R student Jonah Norman-Gray
Meredith says, “The couple had spent many years of their
young lives in a refugee camp in Guinea, although they
were born in Sierra Leone.” Finda had approached Meredith,
asking if she could help her to learn to speak English better,
and to learn to read and write English. Finda was in a
position of having to wait for a childcare opening before she
could begin English classes at the Open Door Society. “The
classes at Open Door and the Library have a limited number
of spaces and there are wait lists,” says Meredith.
With Finda’s situation in mind, Meredith and Fatima started
thinking about the many new Canadian women in Regina
who could not attend EAL classes because they had babies
or preschoolers to care for. They determined to set up a
community-based language program for newcomers to
Canada, specifically for those women with young children
who are on waiting lists for language classes through the
Open Door Society, the Regina Public Library, and the Regina
Immigrant Women’s Centre.
Continued on next page
Education News | Page 13
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