CALIFORNIA, Mo. -- Newcomers to the United States find help learning English as a second language through the ESL program hosted at the Moniteau County Library @ Wood Place.
Kathy Burns moved to California after 32 years teaching elementary school in Rochester, New York. She volunteered with the California ESL program to get involved with a program, and within months, she was attending workshops for adult education certification.
That was 10 years ago. The program has moved from the Cargill cafeteria to California Middle School to the Moniteau County Library @ Wood Place, where it has been for more than five years.
"The library has been wonderful to us," Burns said.
The library purchased the Rosetta Stone language program for each of its 14 computer stations, which has been a great help to ESL students, Burns said.
The facility accommodates both computer-based learning and small group instruction.
Regulated through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), the ESL program is unique for a community California's size, Burns noted.
The ESL program received a boost early in its history from local companies that employ workers from Mexico and Central America, Burns said. The California program became a satellite of the Jefferson City ESL program.
"There was definitely a need for their employees to learn English," she said.
Although other local companies have donated to the program through the years, the primary funding comes through DESE.
Participants take a pre-test at the beginning of the year, which is compared to a post-test at the end to mark their progress. The DESE program has seven levels of testing, but students work at their own pace.
Some of the ESL clients are in the United States for only a few months on work visas, but still, they benefit from English lessons, Burns said.
Most of the 40 or so clients each year are legal immigrants from Mexico and Central America. Occasionally, they have worked with someone from China or another Asian nation.
Several students return year after year.
"They're doing their best to learn the American language in order to fit into society," Burns said.
One of the first hurdles for the ESL instructors to help new language learners with is confidence, Burns said.
"We become cheerleaders; we help them feel better about what they can do."
Another hurdle is literacy.
"There's not much opportunity for education at all in Mexico for many of these people," Burns said. "Many can't read or write in any language.
"We work with reading, writing, speaking and listening."