By Lizz Bottrell
Citizen Staff

The Moose Mountain Community Settlement Committee (CSC) began looking at various English as a Second Language (ESL) programs during the last meeting held April 8.

ESL programs are essential tools for the CSC to help new immigrants to the Kipling area settle into the community. By offering these programs, people with language barriers moving to Kipling will be able to adjust to a new culture much easier than if they were left to learn English on their own.

Tamara Bloor from the Southeast Community Settlement Committee attended the meeting to introduce the Moose Mountain CSC to various ways of incorporating ESL learning tools into the community.

First off, the Rosetta Stone Computer Program, which is an ESL teaching aid, comes highly recommended by many. It’s often used in areas where there is no college, making it a great candidate for Kipling and area. Rosetta Stone prides itself on “approaching language learning the same way that you learned a langauge - using a natural method that teaches new language directly, without translation.” It’s a proven method that’s been used by thousands of people all over the world. The interactive software offers immediate feedback, photos with sounds and real-life conversational simulations - all without any translation. Pretty much the program gives a person the feeling of being immersed in a new culture.

Probably one of the most technologically advanced and definitely most exciting tools Rosetta Stone provides is its state-of-the-art speech recognition. “The Speech Analysis Tool compares your voice to that of native speakers, helping you perfect your pronunciation.”

Another ESL tool talked about during the meeting was FriendSpeak. This program teaches conversational English with bible passages. The program is beneficial because it teaches English while providing one on one interaction with a member of the community. As anyone who’s ever moved to a new town where he or she did not know anyone, having the opportunity to sit one on one with a person, getting to know them, is a welcomed opportunity.

While the CSC has yet to make a decision on which tool they’ll use, in the meantime, anyone interested in becoming involved with ESL training can take a crash course through the Southeast Regional College. Just go to the website at www.ed2go.com/secollege/ and click on ‘Courses for Teaching Professionals.’ This page will direct you to a page full of options, so go to ‘Intro to Teaching ESL’ and you can be on your way to becoming an ESL trained professional. The cost of the course is $120, which is actually fairly cheap for a college or university course. The course runs for six weeks, with a two week grace period at the end. Anyone wanting to know more about the course can check out the website for a complete rundown of all the lessons the course offers.

The last option the CSC wants to look into is an incentive program to get the students from grades 10 - 12 involved. One option they discussed was becoming involved in the volunteer program at the school. The CSC still needs to complete more research on this option at this time.

Anyone wanting to volunteer with the CSC or become involved with any of the above ESL methods should contact Loretta Demyen at 736-8399 or stop by the Community Development office. Demyen is always looking for more volunteers and people to get involved.

Future CSC meetings will be held on the second Tuesday of every month, making the next meeting May 13 at 7pm in meeting room two in the Community Centre.