Learning to be brave in English
Ulla, Yun and Dongdong are three English learners who are finding support to grow their speaking confidence.
‘Brave: English Speaking Confidence’, a course run through the Greenhithe Community Centre, is a workshop which assists English as a Second Language (ESL) speakers to not only speak English, but to speak with confidence.
Yun She has come to New Zealand with three other mothers and their children for two months during the Chinese summer holiday period, so their kids will have the opportunity to attend an English school.
Sun says she wants to be able to have in-depth conversations in her second language and not just have ‘survival English’.
‘‘The key issue is confidence to feel free to speak with people who speak native English,’’ she says. ‘‘Sarah is very practised at getting us to be brave and encourages us to be kind to ourselves and throw away a lot of limiting beliefs.’’
For DongDong Xu, a Chinese immigrant who came to New Zealand two years ago with her daughter, the course provides not only language practice but cultural tips on how to connect with native speakers.
Facilitator Sarah Hartley understands the challenges facing ESL speakers, having lived in a small Japanese village for two years working for the JET programme.
The former high school teacher says many second language speakers can be isolated and seeing them moving towards feeling inspired is rewarding.
‘‘While being fluent might be a really important goal to people, actually often they leave with a greater sense of ‘I want to be part of the community’, ‘I want to form friendships with people’, ‘I want to use the opportunity to learn English to build relationships’, and I think that’s really exciting to see.’’
The six-week course - which is only its second term - works on verbal and non-verbal aspects of communication, such as body language, developing rapport, intonation and attitudinal aspects of confidence.
It’s run with funding from the Upper Harbour Local Board and the Community Organisation Grants Scheme (COGS).
Hartley says a lot of the work is about getting people together, talking and thinking of ways ‘‘you can keep going on that journey of learning in an inspiring and practical way’’.