Need a crash course on how to teach English in another country? Want to learn how to use cooking to teach English as a Second Language (ESL)?
Need to find ways to reach out to your Japanese co-workers?
The Alabama Baptist State Literacy Missions Conference, set for Aug. 24–26 at Shocco Springs Baptist Conference Center in Talladega, has “something for everybody,” said Gena Heatherly, literacy missions specialist for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM).
The conference offers more than 60 classes — few of which are repeats — and a lineup of more than 25 speakers, all of whom teach their topics nationally, Heatherly said.
Topics include:
- Connecting literacy missions with the black community
- Understanding Muslim beliefs and how to witness to Arabic-speaking people
- How to teach a learning-disabled student
- Teaching literacy courses in prisons, nursing homes and adult day care and on job sites
- Conversational English lessons for preschoolers
- Teaching life skills to nonreading or low-functioning adults
- How to work with and witness to Korean, Japanese, Thai and Laotian people (separate sessions for each language group)
- How to disciple new adult believers
A wide array of ESL training sessions will be available to help churches start a program or enhance an existing one. The offerings include a course on teaching ESL through cooking — a first for this type of training in Alabama.
This conference also marks the first time the SBOM has offered training in English as a Foreign Language (EFL), a crash-course answer to ESL that helps prepare people to teach English overseas, Heatherly said.
“This is not a session that teaches you to start a ESL ministry in your church — you still need additional training for that. This is designed for those going overseas to teach English for a short time,” she said.
This can mean whole teams from churches or individuals wishing to plug into that type of ministry on their own. Reggie Quimby, director of the SBOM office of global partnerships and volunteers in missions, will be on hand to lead a session about how to get involved with state teams going to teach English in Guatemala and Ukraine.
For both ESL and EFL, the training gleaned from this conference is sufficient for teaching — no further professional training or certifications are needed, Heatherly said.
“That excites us because from this conference, we are able to mobilize many teachers,” she added.
Another first for the state is the offering of Spanish adult reading and writing, a class designed to teach Hispanics in Alabama to read and write in Spanish before attempting to teach them English.
“Anytime a person can read the Bible in their native language, it’s easier to understand and fully grasp all the concepts,” Heatherly said. “It’s better if they don’t have to filter it through another language.”
This course is geared more toward leaders of Hispanic congregations wishing to use the literacy program as a tool within their congregation and a vehicle for outreach, she said.
“This will be a wonderful ministry to come alongside the (Hispanic) churches being planted that are popping up all over the state,” Heatherly said.
The curriculum is being coordinated by Ed Ables, a catalytic missionary with the North American Mission Board who works with the North Alabama Baptist Hispanic Ministry Coalition, and his wife, Linda, Language for Missions program coordinator and Spanish instructor at Samford University in Birmingham. The couple served as missionaries in Ecuador for 16 years and then in Argentina for nine.
“This is a natural for them after all their years of experience,” said Heatherly, noting that the curriculum would be a mix of an existing curriculum called Alfalit and materials that the Ableses develop to go with it.
“This is not the kind of thing that hits like a big explosion. It takes prayer and preparation to take off. But it will reach so many people,” she said.
Learning to read makes such a difference in people’s lives that there’s no way to know how programs like this can affect an entire family, Heatherly said.
“Not only does it open doors for witnessing but think of the change it makes in a family’s life when a child can read or when a grandparent can read the Bible for the first time,” she said.
Heatherly recalled the story of an elderly man who learned to read through this type of program. When he passed away, being able to read had meant so much to him that he had his certificate in the casket with him.
It ‘makes a difference’
“There were three things in his casket — a photo of his first wife, who had passed away; a photo of his second wife, who had also preceded him in death; and his certificate for passing his literacy course,” she said. “You just don’t realize what it means in people’s lives. It rippled through that family and all the way to the grave.
“An hour a week (spent helping someone learn to read) can make a difference in someone’s life.”
For more information, call 1-800-264-1225, Ext. 597.
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