George Fox University | About | Martha Iancu

Martha Iancu

Associate Professor of English as a Second Language

Country:
United States

Organization:
"Amigos" Community English as a Second Language Program

Nature of Work:
Between the spring of 1995 and the spring of 2000, in conjunction with the Introduction to Teaching English to Speakers of Other languages (TESOL) course, George Fox University offered community English as a Second Language classes at Newberg Friends Church, with the cooperation of the Hispanic pastor. The program came to be called "Amigos." Each fall, George Fox University students volunteered to teach or tutor in this program as part of the Christian Ministries outreach. Each spring semester the program is used as a teaching lab for Introduction to TESOL. At different times, teaching in "Amigos" was organized as formal classes or small-group tutoring. Attendance ranged from a handful to about 30 students, with three or four groups divided by proficiency level. Through the years, more than 100 members of the local Hispanic community, as well as a few immigrants from other language backgrounds, participated in this program, which was designed to fill a need for English language instruction for new members of the Newberg community.