Challenge to ESL Class Is Getting There

It was a rain-soaked evening and David Barrett’s San Pedro adult school class was more than half empty. Attendance usually varies, but on this night only those who had access to a car or a ride showed up.

Lack of transportation is a fact of everyday life for many of Barrett’s students. Most are recent immigrants, and many have had little formal education. But four nights a week they gather with a common goal: to learn English.

On this rainy evening, a few students patiently waited under an awning for a janitor to open the auditorium doors. Once inside, they had no place to sit; tables and benches had not been set up.

Then Barrett arrived, carting a red plastic milk crate containing an old coffeepot, condiments and textbooks.

“If I don’t have coffee for them, they’ll revolt,” he said of his students.

Barrett and a few of the students set up the seats. Still other students continued to filter in over the next half-hour.

But many of those who began the class, dubbed English as a Second Language, on Jan. 7 are no longer among Barrett’s students at the San Pedro Community Adult School. Some have dropped the class because of job conflicts, family pressures or lack of interest. School officials say students in such English classes typically are highly transient, and, as a result, attendance ebbs and flows.

Enrollment in Barrett’s class peaked at about 90 in mid-February, after it was combined with another teacher’s group. Currently, 75 students are still registered in the 12-week course, but recent rains have tended to dampen attendance.

Among those who did not show up for Barrett’s class were Myung Whang and Mi Hyon Cha, Korean immigrants who separately dropped out of the course halfway through the term.

Cha said she no longer attends class because of problems in getting a ride and because her husband wanted her to spend more time with their two children.

“My husband told me if I go to school, bad for kids,” Cha said in accented English during a telephone interview. “They acting bad when I go to school. I don’t go to school, they act good.”

Whang, a former publishing clerk who had been living with a sister in Rancho Palos Verdes, has moved to Torrance. Although he has dropped the San Pedro ESL class, he explained in an interview that he has enrolled in a similar class at Carson High School, which is closer to his new home.

Daniel Moreno, 52, is among the oldest pupils still registered in the course. Moreno, who works part time at a Torrance moving company, said in Spanish that he has not progressed in English as much as he would have liked but that he enjoys the class and plans to continue.

However, Moreno’s son, Ismael, 24, also a student of Barrett’s, found employment as a farm worker in Santa Clara recently and is no longer in the class, Moreno said.

This night’s lessons included grammar drills, exercises in how to open a bank account and brief instruction in civics via an educational videotape. Barrett calls the lessons part of a survival plan for his students.

“The more things they can fit into their life right now, the faster they’re going to learn English and acclimate themselves to our culture,” Barrett said.

Bozica Reil, 35, who immigrated to the United States from Yugoslavia just four months ago, said she has already learned enough English to land a job as a housekeeper.

Reil said the class has given her the confidence to shop for groceries by herself. She often makes trips to the store because she cooks for her employers.

“You learn normal sentences that you can use in real life,” Reil said in accented English.

Previous class discussions have dealt with mailing a letter, going to the gas station and using a telephone. Recently, to teach the students about bank accounts, Barrett reached into his wallet and pulled out a plastic card.

“This is an automated teller card,” he told the students, sliding the card into an imaginary machine. “If you have money in the bank, money is put into the tray.”

Later, Barrett described the difference between savings and checking accounts. A majority of the students do not have any type of account and usually cash paychecks through check-cashing vendors.

“What reason do I have to open an account?” he asks the students.

“Para ahorrar,” said one woman, in Spanish. In English: “To save.”

Barrett nodded in agreement. “My money is safe,” he said. “The bank pays me interest.”

A checking account, he said, would allow them to cash their paychecks without having to pay a check-cashing charge.

Aside from practical terms, Barrett also attempts to familiarize the students with American culture and customs. The students are shown a video series that includes civics lessons, grammar drills and cultural tips.

One segment dealt with an explanation of the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government, and an accompanying workbook exercise described Fourth of July festivities.

Often, Barrett will use his quirky sense of humor to illustrate a subject or term.

In a question-and-answer drill on contractions, Barrett resorted to song.

“The question is, can I sing? La-la-la-la,” he crooned. “No, I can’t.”

The students laughed and nodded in agreement.

Another lesson entailed the use of terms used when learning to drive. Barrett stepped on an imaginary brake pedal, then made a screeching sound and asked the students to do the same.

“Let me see those brakes,” he said, dashing around the room, looking under tables and checking the students’ feet. Soon, the room was filled with gyrating feet and the sounds of car horns honking.

The humor of a room full of adults stepping on imaginary brake pedals isn’t lost on Barrett.

“That’s part of a tool that keeps up their enthusiasm,” Barrett said. “They work all day; maybe they’re kind of tired. When they laugh, they wake back up again. I’ve found that if I don’t make it enjoyable, they vote with their feet--they won’t come back.”

As the class ended, Barrett paired up students who did not have rides home with others who had transportation. About five students stayed after class to find out the dates of final exams.

Barrett said he hopes that after the students complete the course, a beginning-level English class, they will move on to a higher level. The adult school offers five levels of English as a Second Language.

Imelda Ruvalcaba, who confined herself to her home when she first immigrated from Mexico a year ago because she did not know English, said Barrett’s class has enabled her to have conversations with the English-speaking parents of her children’s schoolmates.

A hairdresser in her native Mexico, Ruvalcaba said her goal is to complete the fifth level.

“That is the dream, the ideal,” she said wistfully. “Can you imagine that, what that would be like?”