501-918-3025
calsfoundation@cals.org
calsfoundation@cals.org
Dee Brown Library Graduates Celebrate Language Acquisition
On Thursday, July 27, a group of patrons gathered in the community room at Dee Brown Library to celebrate. While most people spend their summers avoiding the heat and relaxing, this group was working on building their language skills. The language acquisition program at Dee Brown offered two options- English as a second language and Spanish as a second language. The classes were held from May-June and met twice a week.
With the help of Dr. Lorena Franco-Whitmore, this group challenged themselves to take on the daunting task of learning a second language.
“You dedicated your mental effort, your emotional effort, and you practiced social bravery – because we all know that learning another language can be really scary.”– Loni Bean, CALS Bilingual Library Specialist said while addressing the class of graduates
She talked about the motivations of learning a second language, including employment options, connecting with others in their neighborhood, speaking to children’s teachers, and to even be able to stand up for themselves. She went on to discuss the challenges that arise with learning a second language later in life and how this group rose to that challenge.
One of the participants, Bokari Williams said of his motivation to join the classes, “I’ve always wanted to learn another language – I’ve been in education for seventeen years – and Spanish was the first language I wanted to learn. I have students of different cultures and different backgrounds and I want to be able to communicate with those scholars better on a daily basis.” He went on to discuss how quickly the class was able to make progress with vocabulary and conjugation. He felt the pace was quick but efficient and that Dr. Franco was didn’t overwhelm them and created a comfortable culture to learn in the class.
Loni is excited about the success of this class and will be bringing them back in August for the August through September Session. Classes will be held every Saturday at 9-11 for beginner English and 11-1 for beginner Spanish. If you’re interested in learning English or Spanish, visit the Dee Brown branch or call 501-568-7494 to inquire about joining.
