2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

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BEST PRACTICES 2012
student; one person will usually take charge of creating the tutoring schedule. If their
schedule allows, each tutor will usually be able to tutor at least once a week.
Curriculum and Materials
The purpose of the ESL program is to teach English in a one-on-one tutor/student
situation to the contract cleaning staff in our building. Some of our tutors speak Spanish,
and although it can be helpful and fun to speak Spanish to the students, we urge the
tutors to use English as much as possible; improving students’ language skills is the
priority and the core of the curriculum. An integrated approach of listening, speaking,
reading, and writing English that is relevant to the students’ daily work and life
experiences and needs is encouraged. Tutors in the workplace create a supportive
environment in which the students participate in activities and exercises that enable them
to improve their English language skills quickly. Emphasis is placed on increasing
vocabulary and proper pronunciation. The stress is heaviest on conversational English.
The ESL curriculum covers several areas that the students wish to concentrate on and
improve: workplace communication, daily activities, and studying for citizenship.
The primary materials currently being used are: “The Oxford Picture Dictionary Bilingual
Edition (Spanish-English)”; “Ingles Hecho Facil”, a workbook for Spanish speakers; and
civics flash cards from the US Citizenship and Immigration Service. Many other materials
are being used to instruct students including workbooks, motor vehicle materials,
newspaper advertisements, newspaper articles, grammar exercise sheets, and basic
numerical calculations.
Conclusion
The DOJ Library Staff ESL Workplace Program is a partnership between DOJ employees
(tutors) and the contract cleaning employees (students). The existence of this program
depends on the continued support and cooperation of these groups, along with
management support. In the past year, ESL tutoring programs have been initiated in two
additional DOJ buildings following the same model as the original program that began in
the DOJ Patrick Henry Building in 2000. Now that these programs have been in existence
for several months, there is a discernible improvement in the English language
conversational skills of the cleaning staff students. I expect these programs to continue
as long as there is a need and desire on the part of the cleaning staff to improve their
English language skills and a desire by DOJ employees to give something back to their
community and be a part of this rewarding program. A number of the tutors have
expressed their belief that it is a “win-win” situation for all participants. One tutor wrote,
“To watch our student improve so rapidly and be so eager for more information and so
grateful for our help is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.” So far, at
least one of our students has achieved her goal of becoming a U.S. citizen. It is our hope
that, as we continue to experience success, this program will become a model for other
ESL workplace programs throughout the Department of Justice and other federal
government agencies.