TLC held graduation for its Spring 2022 Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) students on Saturday, May 14. Five students completed the certification preparation course, and one has begun teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for TLC.
TLC Partner Catholic Charities, Diocese of Nashville, has welcomed 332 Afghan refugees to Middle Tennessee. The Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE), another TLC partner, has settled over 200 Afghan refugees and is expecting up to 100 more. These refugees were displaced by the largest evacuation in 50 years of people from their home country to the U.S.
In the first quarter of 2021, TLC has tested 289 of these refugees to ascertain their English proficiency and either placed them in a TLC English as a Second Language (ESL) class at the appropriate level or referred them to other agencies for assistance. TLC will be testing and referring all the adult refugees in the Nashville area. So far, 108 Afghans have attended a TLC ESL class with more expected to enroll over the coming months.
In addition, TLC was able to offer an Afghan interpreter a scholarship to attend our legal interpreter training, and we hope to be able to offer additional scholarships in the future.
TLC Training Specialist Richard Ponce de Leon, TLC Interpreter and MITC Instructor Nadia Crank, and TLC Interpreter Dennis Caffey recently participated in an educational panel for 20 candidates for a doctorate in nursing from Belmont University. They were joined by Dr. Elizabeth Morse, professor of nursing; Erick Hernandez Campos, nurse practitioner and student of the Doctorate in Nursing at Belmont; and Lauren Smith, family nurse practitioner at Siloam. The panel, which was sponsored and held at Siloam Health in Nashville, focused on language access, the use of interpreters, and culture-informed healthcare. Siloam Health provides health care for the uninsured, underserved, and culturally marginalized in Middle Tennessee.
The fifth “Spanish for Educator’s 10-week course began on April 4 with 13 participants. The group are all Metro Nashville Public School teachers from either Glencliff High School or the schools that feed into Glencliff. The course was developed by TLC to help participants with little or no previous Spanish study to develop a cultural understanding and a basic repertoire of conversation skills to engage with Spanish speakers in their schools and local communities.
Erika Burnett, Diversity, Inclusion, and Intercultural Communication Instructor, represented the Tennessee Language Center at the Metro Nashville Office of Family Safety remote and in-person panel about meaningful language access for trauma survivors. The panel addressed staff and partners of Nashville’s Family Safety Center as well as Tennessee’s statewide family justice centers and their partners (victim advocates, legal aid, prosecutors, medical and mental health professionals, law enforcement, crisis response staff, etc.) Topics addressed included how to prepare a trauma survivor to work with interpreters as well as how to prepare interpreters to work with trauma survivors, what language access plans are and how to begin developing one, and cultural sensitivity.
TLC was recognized by the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence for achieving the Interest Recognition (Level 1) at the TNCPE annual conference March 23. The TLC Leadership Team completed the organizational profile using the Baldridge Excellence Framework. The Leadership Team is already working on the application process for the next level.
22 people from 10 counties across Tennessee as well as New Mexico and South Carolina recently completed TLC’s “TN State Court Interpreter Ethics and Skills Building Workshop.” Languages represented included French, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish.
Lorie Adams, one of TLC’s ESL teachers and TESL trainers, and Diane Thomas, one of TLC’s ESL teachers, were nominated for Adult Educator of the Year by Adult Literacy at the Nashville Public Library.
Lorie has taught Beginning to Advanced level ESL classes at TLC since 2014. She is also an instructor in TLC’s Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) certification program. Diane has taught ESL at TLC since 2011.
Director of World Languages Brian Barnett was recently a guest of Cara to Cara radio program sponsored by the Hispanic Family Foundation (HFF). For the Spring 2022 World Languages term, we are offering an in-person beginning Spanish class at HFF. Registration for Spring Term starts March 7 and classes begin the week of April 18. TLC also offers English classes at HFF.
TLC recently held graduation for its newest group of graduates from the Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) certification program. TLC’s teacher certification course (now presented online) offers 150 hours of instruction, far beyond the standard 100 hours, and includes a 30-hour, in-person teaching practicum.
Executive Director Janice Rodriguez told graduates, “What you are doing for English language learners can be life changing. As you know, being able to communicate effectively in English opens doors. It sets the speaker on the path for success, gives them the confidence to develop personally and professionally, and for those learning in the U.S., makes life here in the United States become more like home.”