ESL, multicultural events brings students together

With English speaking students volunteering for the English as a Second Language conversation partner program, ESL students could learn about American culture and daily uses for English.

Some students believe some aspects of the program could use improvement.

"They focused on how to do a test and how to read," Sara Al-Ghamdi, a freshman from Saudi Arabia, said.

Al-Ghamdi said she believes there was not enough focus on conversation that these students will experience each day.

Other students agreed.

"Yes, certain students believe that they are not seeing much improvement as expected due to the program," Shady Francis, a senior pre-med major from Jonesboro, said.

Factors that may contribute to this problem include the possibility that the student(s) and the English partner(s) do not speak on a weekly basis or that the conversations between the student and the English partner were not beneficial to their listening and speaking skills.

Due to the growing popularity of becoming multilingual, there are a myriad of activities offered throughout the ASU campus to facilitate those seeking to learn an additional language.

The Edge Coffeehouse, 1900 Aggie Road, hosts three weekly meetings for students to converse and socialize fluently in a foreign language.

These events include Tertulia for Spanish speaking students, which meets every Wednesday at 4 p.m., Le Cercle Francais for French conversationalists, which meets every Monday night at 5, and Stammtisch, which translates to Regulars table, which meets every Friday from 12-1 p.m. and is for German students.

In addition to the weekly meetings at the Edge, intended for more advanced conversations and fluent interactions, there are also weekly conversation tables offered for elementary and intermediate level Spanish students held twice on Wednesdays, from 12-1 p.m., and from 1-2 p.m.

This event, known as Mesas de Conversacion, or Conversation tables, is held in room 317 of Wilson Hall, room 317.

The conversation tables are run by the students themselves, but are supervised by third year conversationalists as part of their course requirements.

The goal of the program is to not only aid students in learning their language of choice, but to also link students and facilitate cultural familiarity, said Yvonne Unnold, chair of the department of World Languages and Cultures.