A free Butler County Community College adult literacy program in English as a second language helps students to achieve independence and serves as a social outlet for those who may feel lonely in their new culture.

Barb Gade, grant director of a BC3 adult literacy program whose English as a second language courses in Butler County this spring semester have 35 students enrolled, said the class’ numbers are “absolutely the most ever.”

While spring semester courses have recently begun, students can still register for ESL beginners or for ESL English through Wednesday, Gade said.

BC3 is offering each course at BC3 @ Cranberry in Cranberry Township, and ESL beginners on the college’s main campus in Butler Township.

ESL beginners is an introduction to the English language. ESL English helps students learn English to improve reading, writing, speaking and listening skills to navigate day-to-day life in their new culture.

Classes in each course are held Mondays and Wednesdays through April 20.

The first language of 3.4% of Butler County residents ages 5 or older between 2015 and 2019 was one other than English, the U.S. Census Bureau reported July 1.

Six students were enrolled in BC3’s ESL courses in Butler County in all of 2009, Gade said. Enrollment increased to 15 in fall 2018 and to 26 in spring 2021. Courses are held in BC3’s spring and fall semesters.

In addition to Arabic, Ukrainian and Spanish, the first language of students attending BC3’s ESL courses in Butler County in the past two years include Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Vietnamese, according to Gade and BC3 ESL instructor Ann Hergenrother, who said each of her students at BC3 @ Cranberry over the past two years was born abroad.

Khadija Akhouad, 47, is a native of Oued Zem, Morocco; Alla Dukhovenko, 56, is from Donetsk, Ukraine; and Omayra Rivera, 41, is from Lares, Puerto Rico.

“Butler County is becoming more global,” Gade said. “We have different people speaking different languages coming into our area who need to get by.”

“Diversity,” Hergenrother added, “is coming in.”

Akhouad, Dukhovenko and Rivera have lived in Butler County for three years, Akhouad in Seven Fields, and Dukhovenko and Rivera in Cranberry Township.

“I felt isolated”

Classes in each 55-hour course over 22 sessions are scheduled in a face-to-face format, Gade said. BC3’s ESL courses are funded by a four-year grant from the state Department of Education and, to her knowledge, Gade said, are the only free ESL courses in Butler County.

Learning English helps students to speak to medical providers, to shop more easily, to make appointments and to pursue employment and a driver’s license.

“And if they have children in schools,” Hergenrother said, “knowing how to talk to a teacher, and what kind of questions to ask.”

Akhouad, Dukhovenko and Rivera recently attended BC3 ESL courses at BC3 @ Cranberry after their foreign-born, English-speaking husbands took positions as engineers in Butler County.

While they speak their first language with relatives – Akhouad to her husband, Youssef Bachra, and to her children Yasser and Omar; Dukhovenko to her husband, Romen, and to her children Nastya and Alexey; and Rivera to her husband, Jose, and to her child Paola – they struggled in their new culture.

“I stay at home long time,” Dukhovenko said.

“We are afraid go out,” Rivera said. “I feel that people maybe don’t understand you.”

“I felt isolated because I did not communicate with anyone,” Akhouad said.

English, Gade said, “is a fairly tricky language to learn.”

“We probably have one of the most crazy languages on the planet,” Hergenrother said.

Akhouad, Dukhovenko and Rivera enrolled in BC3’s ESL courses, where in addition to grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling and writing they learned about homonyms – ate, eight; patience, patients – and tenses.

Students are assessed for listening and speaking competency before their first class in each course. Their functioning in English is expected to have improved by one level after their final class. ESL beginners and ESL English each have three levels, Gade said. Of those students who attended at least 40 hours of BC3 ESL courses in Butler County in fall 2021, 57% increased one functioning level, Gade said.

The end of each course is often recognized with students bringing to BC3 @ Cranberry or BC3’s main campus a meal from their native country to share, Gade said.

“They celebrate having had the classes together,” Gade said. “The socialization aspect is important.”

Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.