ESL Classes Bring Opportunity To Foreign-Born Students

They are opera singers, business owners, parents and other adults living in this country -- but their English is lacking.

So they show up to Melodie Earickson’s class in Lake Elsinore every Friday, from 10 a.m. to noon, to learn.

“Lep-re-chaun, can anyone tell me what a leprechaun is?” Earickson asks the 11 students in her March 18 class. “Let’s all say it together, lep-re-chaun.”

The students manage the word, albeit with varying accents, as part of Earickson’s once-a-week “Intermediate Level English as a Second Language Conversation” class at the Lake Elsinore Library on West Graham.

“There is such a need for this in our community,” Earickson said during a short class break. “They want to learn to communicate effectively. Some have very difficult lives, but they show up to class and are great students.

“Here in Lake Elsinore, classes are comprised of mostly Spanish speakers – about 85 percent. They get a chance to practice conversations in English,” Earickson continued, noting that many of the students hold jobs where Spanish is the only language spoken during the course of a workday.

Earickson is a longtime teacher. She holds a B.A. in linguistics and taught at Long Beach City College before joining the Riverside County Library System in 1987.

The ESL classes that Earickson leads are part of the library system’s Adult Literacy Program. In addition to the weekly class in Lake Elsinore, Earickson teaches an Intermediate Level ESL course at Wildomar’s Mission Trail Library every Thursday from 10 a.m. to noon, and she holds classes in Temecula’s public libraries as well.

"In Temecula, most of my students are non-Spanish speaking," Earickson said. "They come from mostly Asian countries."

She said all the classes, which focus on conversation, reading and writing, are free to the public.

During the March 18 class, nine Spanish-speaking students from various Latin American countries were on hand. They were a mix of parents, grandparents and professionals. One Korean opera singer was in class, along with a young Syrian mother whose native tongue is Arabic.

Norma Aguirre, 39, of Lake Elsinore, came to the United States 16 years ago from Mexico. She was in Earickson’s March 18 class.

“I need to improve,” she said. “I’m trying to get a job at CostCo.”

Lake Elsinore resident Elsa Sanchez, 47, hails from Peru and is a longtime student of Earickson’s – nearly 10 years.

“I’ve learned a lot, but I need more,” Sanchez said with a heavy accent. “I need to speak English.”

Sanchez, a housekeeper at an area hospital, said she’s planning for the day when her body gives out and she has to transition into a less physically demanding career.

“If you don’t speak English, you don’t get the job,” she said.

Earickson explained that for the students, success in the classroom is defined by personal goals.

“People who don’t speak the language are sometimes afraid and feel isolated,” Sanchez said. “(Non-English speakers) feel like they’re not welcome, but it’s not true. We need to break through the wall (with) communication.”