A Mexican man in his early 40s sat focused at the end of a long table, stumbling over his pronunciation of “fireworks.” Not far away, a woman studied for the U.S. citizenship test, easily answering questions about Supreme Court justices and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
On Thursday night, UI students helped immigrants transcribe Spanish thoughts into English words in West Liberty, a small town 30 minutes away from Iowa City. As the group members came together to share their summer stories, smiles and laughter lingered about the room like the small girl circling the tables, patiently waiting for her mother to finish her lesson.
Thursday’s session was the first of the year for those involved with the West Liberty Adult Tutoring Program, which teaches non-English-speaking immigrants how to overcome the language barrier when dealing with everyday obstacles.
All of the volunteer tutors are either UI students or alumni, and they all share a passion for teaching.
Melissa Orsino, a UI graduate student in English education, expressed the same enthusiasm for the people involved.
“It’s just such a great atmosphere,” she said. “The students bring such great energy.”
Although she sometimes gets tired on the ride out to West Liberty, Orsino said, she is energized when she sees the students ready to learn after working long days, often in less than ideal conditions.
The free program reflects West Liberty’s diversity, where immigrants come from Mexico, El Salvador, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Their speaking skills are as varied as their backgrounds, making it difficult for the tutors to design programming to fit the levels of each student.
But the tutors pride themselves on their ability to cater to their students’ needs. UI associate professor Carolyn Colvin, the program’s director, said the tutors’ enthusiasm outweighs their language skills.
“Knowing the language isn’t necessarily the most important thing,” she said. “The most important quality you need is the desire to help someone learn something new.”
Tutors use an individual approach that focuses on what the students want to learn, a method Colvin described as “elbow-to-elbow” tutoring.
“It’s not me teaching them, it’s us working together,” Silva said.
Orsino said the cooperative dynamic proves beneficial for both the tutors and students.
“When I started tutoring, I had this idea that I would be a beacon of Americana,” Orsino said. “The more I tutored, the more I realized I was learning just as much from them.”
Silva said the value of the program goes beyond developing any new teaching technique.
“There is a reward to seeing people be so excited to learn English,” she said. “Just seeing the look on their faces is great.”