By CASEY NEILL
SPRING Parks Primary School has become a haven for honing English skills.
Each Thursday it hosts about 50 women who are eager to improve their ability to converse.
Principal Julie Fisher said the program had been running for 15-plus years.
“There are some older women there who really struggle to pick up English but they come along for more of the social aspect,” she said.
“Some are parents and relatives. A lot aren’t, as well.
“They’ve just always seen it as a venue where they can come and learn English.”
Ms Fisher said the school community was about 85 per cent Asian – mostly Vietnamese plus Cambodian and Chinese.
“We used to have about 60 children from Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand. That’s now about 30,” she said.
“A lot of Africans came through from the Sudan but they’ve started to move on.
“At the moment we’re finding Indians are coming through but they’re coming in speaking English, because a lot of them are professionals.
“When the enterprise hostel was up here in Westall Road they were coming in straight off the boat and straight to our school and there was no English with mum, dad or the kids.
“Now it’s very rare to get a child in with no English.
“Now there’s language schools all around and they’re advised to go there for six months.”
Anne Brown became a tutor with the English group about seven years ago after a friend encouraged her to come along.
She’s watched women improve their English and increase their confidence.
“People know English but when you try and use it quickly in a shop it’s very hard,” she said.
“We have people arriving with only a few words. If they stay long enough they really improve.
“We have one or two students with special needs children and it makes all the difference to them.”
Ms Brown said many participants were grandparents who could speak to their children in their native tongue but now couldn’t communicate with their English-speaking grandchildren.
Most students come from China, Cambodia, Vietnam, India and Sudan, and they’re grouped by ability.
“We’ve had as many as four men but usually it’s women because it’s during the day,” Ms Brown said.
“We do not set a program – each tutor decides what topics to cover, according to students’ needs and interests.
“Most tutors are ex-teachers, some with qualifications in ESL.”
AMES has supported the group with training courses, workshops and other resources.
“All tutors are volunteers. Students pay 50 cents a class to cover costs of photocopying,” she said.
Students are also welcome to attend an excursion, held once a term and ranging from lunch at a local restaurant to galleries, the Botanical Gardens, Docklands and a farm.
A friend recommended Phuong Phan from Springvale South give the lessons a go.
“I studied English in Vietnam but I’ve improved my English here,” she said.
“In Vietnam my teacher was Vietnamese so they didn’t show me much about the voice.”
