Archway English Classes Held in Local Mushroom Farms this Spring

Images above: English students pose proudly with their certificates in the last class.

This spring the Access2English (A2E) program at Archway Community Services extended its language service to Nature and Newland Mushroom Farms in Abbotsford, BC. For ten weeks, from February to April, an instructor team brought English classes to the lunchrooms at the farms and taught workplace English to four different classes of 20 – 25 enthusiastic learners.

It was a joint venture between the manager of the mushroom farms and the coordinator of A2E, an EAL program that provides English language instruction to temporary foreign workers, Canadian citizens and refugee claimants. The curriculum focused on survival English for CLB 1-2 beginner level students. Topics included asking for clarification, work schedules, requesting time off and reading the mushroom farm’s vacation policy. Students had the chance to practice their pronunciation with a daily focus on phonics.

Many participants said they felt more confident, especially with speaking, after the ten-week course. The course held a mid-term exam and a final exam that included a speaking component. During the course, two Vietnamese-speaking class volunteers came on board. (Vietnamese is one of the main languages of the farm workers.) These volunteers provided flexible, adaptable and essential support to the learners’ success. The instructor remarked, “The volunteers helped make the lessons run smoothy, which made them more enjoyable for the learners and myself!”

The Access2English team would like to thank the Nature and Newland Mushroom Farms for welcoming our instructors. We look forward to more productive, on-site teaching adventures in the future.

Written by Karla Hiltermann. Edited by Kendra Thompson.

Images below: Celebrating Easter by hunting for eggs that contained parts of an email with a polite request for time off. For many, it was their first easter egg hunt.