Why I teach ELL

For the past three years, I have taught English Language Learners (or English as a Second Language) at Overland Park Church of the Nazarene. I’m not an English teacher, and neither are the majority of the dozen or so volunteer tutors who help with ELL each week. So, why do we teach ELL?

If you’ve ever lived in another country where your native language is not the primary spoken language, you might understand. You will then know how difficult it is to get the most basic things done. You have to find someone to translate documents for you and to explain cultural norms and policies which are different from your home country’s. You worry that people might take advantage of you because you’re a foreigner. Your own frustration with your lack of communication skills is intensified when other people refuse to take time to try and understand you, a foreigner trying to communicate.

The people who attend my ELL classes are bright people. I have doctors and grad students and engineers in my ELL classes who need to perfect their English skills. I also have people who work in a Chinese-speaking environment (like a restaurant), speak Chinese with family and friends, and have next to no communication with English speakers. I have people who are new the U.S. and people who have been here for years. There are some students who return semester after semester, and others who just come for a few weeks and never return. We recognize that we’re not the best English Language Learning institute in the world, but we do seek to help students where they are. More important than teaching English, we want to display the love of Christ and fight the injustices against them. We want to be a church that cares about the needs of people.

“The LORD your God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and loves the foreigner, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:18-19)

ELL is not simply a service we provide. It is an opportunity to build relationships. ELL students love to share with us. They share stories and pictures and food (lots of food!). We spend the 4th of July together and invite them to church musicals. There’s even a small group of ELL students who return on Sunday mornings for an ELL Sunday School class where we study a passage of scripture in an easy English translation of the Bible.

What does the LORD require of you but to enact justice, to demonstrate covenant faithfulness, and to walk in humbleness with your God. (Micah 6:8)