This month, we are featuring the ESL (English as a Second Language) Class taught by Lisa Cirincinione at Cantabria Senior Apartments and Asturias Senior Apartments in Panorama City, CA.
A recent class focused on how to have conversations about making purchases at the grocery store or any other shop — asking about the prices/the cost of something, and how to respond. They also talked about countable and uncountable nouns. For example, apples are countable, but milk is not, and how this affects the verb that you use.
They learned vocabulary such as loaf, container, box, package, carton, as well as the difference between how much and how many. They wrote recipes, and role-played conversations with cashiers and store clerks. In terms of pronunciation, they focused on the final /t/ and /n/ sounds. Many non-native speakers tend to cut off the ends of their words.
One moment that was particularly triumphant involved seeing a student from Nicaragua, who came to class last year with literally no English skills, helping another student from Uzbekistan with her verb tenses. The more veteran student was able to walk her through it and they both felt extremely proud of themselves.
~ Elizabeth Sampson, Regional Program Director
