Our college’s EAL program is coordinated by Jenni Carlyle Shelton who has had a lifelong passion for teaching English to those new to Australia.
Growing up in the beautiful high-country town of Corryong, she remembers being in Grade 1 and taking it upon herself to help classmates who were from across the globe—their fathers working alongside hers building the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme.
“My besties were from Italy, Greece and Germany,” she remembers, “and I really wanted them to learn English, so I decided to help them.”
Years later, Jenni’s Grad. Dip. was in ‘English as a Second Language’—as EAL was called then. This supported her continued passion for teaching and supporting students who were making the massive changes required to adapt to a whole new life.
Jenni says BSSC’s English as an Additional Language (EAL) Intensive program truly changes lives.
She is part of a fabulous team who customise each student’s program as they learn the complexities of the English language and ensure other gaps in students’ education are corrected.
Baked into the program is a commitment to supporting students to understand some of Australia’s less attractive habits around heavy drinking, gambling, hooning, and racism—habits and behaviours that bemuse Jenni’s students.
She’s noticed their Australian peers are often completely unaware these deeply embedded cultural habits are particular to us, and therefore can be quite confronting for those with a different background.
This year there are 38 students enrolled in Intensive EAL. Most have a Karen heritage and their families left Myanmar due to the impact of the civil war that forced the families into refugee camps.
Despite the challenges of the adjustments required by a move to a completely different country, Jenni says Karen students are not only amazingly resilient, they are also incredibly welcoming of new students and are fantastic at working on something collectively.
“We had two girls from Afghanistan embraced in friendship when they joined our class last year,” Jenni says. “These two young women—who’d had quite a bit of access to education—returned the welcome by supporting their Karen friends in class in the most gentle and natural way.”
Alongside classroom connections made by our amazing EAL students, there are sometimes unexpected and wonderfully positive consequences beyond the college. Jenni was delighted to watch these new friendships flow into the community as the mothers of these students got to know each other too.
… say ‘hello’ today.
