My First ESL Student

(ESL: English as a Second Language)

I find that people often assume that if you're a teacher, you must be able (and willing) to teach anything.  "Oh, you teach kids?  Cool, how would you like to give some English lessons on the side?"  This is my response, more or less: "NOOO!"  Teaching Math or History to young ones in a shared language is completely and totally different from teaching adults to understand and speak a new language.  I know people who can do both, and enjoy it, and I have loads of respect for them.  But I can't.

God has His ways of working on me, though.  He gave me friends whose first language is not English. I've played with their children for over three years, and in our efforts to communicate, they learned my language far more quickly than I learned theirs!  And this August, Michaja Kamphuis from the Netherlands started regular lessons at our (English speaking) co-op school.

Left:  Michaja, age 3, at the camp where we (adults) studied Swahili
Right:  Michaja, age 6, at our co-op school

Even up to this year, I honestly did not know how much help I would be with the Kamphuis children's education.  Both Michaja and her younger sister have attended weekly programs (like the Group Days), but those events are less academic, more accessible to kids who are not entirely confident in English.  My friend Dorien has done an excellent job teaching Michaja at home these past couple years, and Michaja has become quite a reader in her own language.  Then this last semester Dorien began teaching her to read in English.  Michaja progressed so quickly!  So they decided she could start attending regular classes with the English-speaking kids.  She now has English school with us in the mornings, and Dorien continues her Dutch instruction in the afternoons.

That means I get to teach my sweet Michaja!  Now, do I really know what I'm doing in this situation?  No, it's a new one for me.  And I generally do not relish new situations!  I wonder, would I have embraced this opportunity if God had not already made the student in question especially dear to me?  I guess I'll never know.  As it happened, knowing the child and seeing how well her parents had prepared her, I was happy and excited to try this new challenge.

I still didn't know how it would work.  Michaja is pretty quiet; how would she respond to all this English?  Whatever we teachers unconsciously expected, we were blown away the first day.  I decided to ask Michaja to read to me from a children's Bible story book--and she read easily, only stumbling over a few tricky words!  Her other teacher, one of the mothers, reported that Michaja joined right in their discussion, making jokes!  I think she is doing VERY well.  (It is so much fun to see how quickly a child can learn to read a second language, even a crazy one like English, when they already understand decoding!)  This is all still new, and both of us--teacher and student--are learning.  Each day is its own adventure, as is any teaching situation, just with a little extra twist. :)

I'm blessed to have this new role in her life!

Me and my girl, kicking back (not at school!)