COSTA MESA : Students Pitching In to Tutor Newcomers

When a record number of students with limited English skills enrolled at Costa Mesa High School last fall, Joan Allen, chairman of the English department, was overwhelmed.

She put the word out on campus that volunteer tutors were needed to provide intensive one-to-one language instruction to keep the new students from floundering. Her plea was answered by a dedicated team of nine teen-agers who spend a portion of each day tutoring fellow students recently arrived from all over the world.

“We’ve never had this large a wave of immigrants before,” said Allen, who also runs the school’s reading skills laboratory.

This year, 40% of the student body has limited proficiency in English. The previous year, the number was a challenging but more manageable 22%. A total of 28 languages are represented among the school’s 1,556 students.

Allen said her job would be impossible without the volunteers. With their help, some students have been able to improve their English skills by as much as one grade level per month.

On her first day as a tutor, Carrie Ruiz, 16, worked with Tony, a 14-year-old Czechoslovakian student.

“I just sat and talked to him, one on one, even though he couldn’t answer back,” she said. “But after a few days he managed to tell me where he was from. Then in a few weeks he started telling me things about a boat. He left Czechoslovakia and came to the United States on a boat.”

Tony’s family left Czechoslovakia seven months ago, and when he enrolled at Costa Mesa High School in September he knew no English. But he has progressed rapidly after working each day with Ruiz and using several self-guided study methods in the reading lab. He’s even picked up a few words of Spanish and Chinese from fellow students working with him.

Maureen Amo, a paid instructional aide who helps coordinate the volunteer tutor program, spent a year in Tahiti and often felt demoralized by the language barrier.

“If you can’t communicate, you feel shut out,” she said. “Being in high school is bad enough for anyone. These kids have the same shyness and self-image problems as any other teen-ager. Having a fellow student as a tutor makes them feel accepted.”

Jodi Rude, 18, who spends at least an hour a day tutoring in addition to holding down a part-time job, found that anyone learning a language requires a lot of reassurance.

“Even if they know a few words, they won’t try until they feel confident,” she said. “We can help them a lot just by being here and saying hello to them on campus.”

Principal Mike Murphy said it hasn’t been determined why Costa Mesa High School experienced such a sudden influx.

“But other schools in Orange County have experienced a steady increase as well. It’s just part of a global demographic trend,” he said. “People are escaping poverty in their home countries and come here because they think they have a better chance of making it.”