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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Newcomers gain professional-level English in course

Top skills allow labour advancement

By: Carol Sanders

Posted: 05/4/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Golrokh Sanehian participates in an English for Special Purposes class at the University of Winnipeg. (PHOTOS BY JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

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Becky Lake leads a motivated class. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) Photo Store

At 6 a.m. Monday, Golrokh Sanehian got up with her two-year-old and started her day. Twelve hours later, the English-language student from Iran stood in front of a roomful of skilled newcomers from around the globe and explained Canada's electoral process.

The computer science major joins chemists, engineers, IT experts, administrators, medical doctors and hydrologists from homelands ranging from Argentina to Kazakhstan two nights a week in a classroom in the bowels of the old downtown bus depot.

They're trying to get over the last hurdle that prevents them from putting their skills and experience to work here: perfecting their English.

With all of the language's subtleties, idioms and lip-biting consonant blends, smoothly saying the word "fifth" is a struggle for most.

"That is a beast," said instructor Becky Lake, with the University of Winnipeg's English for Specific Purposes program.

She gets them to repeat the name of the beast -- "fifth" -- over and over until it rolls off their tongues.

English for Specific Purposes is one of many specialized programs to help newcomers settle in Manitoba, funded by the federal and provincial governments. Now that Citizenship and Immigration wants to oversee resettlement programs across Canada, those who run the programs in Manitoba are waiting to see if their funding will change.

"We're hoping not," said co-ordinator Terena Caryk, who teaches a language class specifically for foreign-trained teachers. "We may have to change things up based on the money. No one knows for sure."

One of those foreign-trained teachers is El Sayed Noureldin. He has a doctorate in physical education from Port Said University in Egypt and was a coach for its swim team. He loves his profession but the prospects in Egypt weren't good, he said.

"There it's really hard. I made $200 a month," said the 32-year-old who came to Canada two years ago. He's working at the Y downtown and going to Caryk's language class for teachers two nights a week.

"My goal is to continue my career," Noureldin said. He wants to work at a university somewhere in Canada and is learning the language of the classroom here.

The three-hour classes run for 12 weeks at night because most students work during the day, Caryk said.

"There's not a lot of time," she said. "We're hoping we're the last stop in language training for these individuals."

Students need to have a Canadian language benchmark of at least 7 to enter the program. The highest level, 8, is required to attend regular university classes.

Some of the students, like Sanehian from Iran, who's at Level 7, are taking the academic language class so they can get into university or college. She has a computer science degree but wants to go to college and become an early childhood educator.

On the professional side, there are English-language classes specifically for engineers, teachers, accountants, IT and business professionals that are developed by professionals, said Caryk.

"The accountants' curriculum was developed by a lady who worked as an accountant and is TESL- (teaching English as a second language) certified."

All of the classes run every term with 10 to 22 students per class, with the exception of the language class for agrologists. It's held just one term a year because there is less demand for it.

There are waiting lists for other classes, said Caryk.

In the language finishing school, signs in the hallways and classrooms remind students it's an "English only" zone. The rule is not strictly enforced because it doesn't have to be. All the adults there want to be there -- and many have had to wait to get into English for specific purposes class.

"They're motivated, intelligent and friendly," said instructor Lake. They want to be working at their potential, she said.

"It's one of the best jobs because the students here really want to be here."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 4, 2012 A11

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