South Ayrshire Council News

Class participants celebrated their achievement in learning or improving their English with their tutors and invited guests.

Some members of the Chinese and Polish communities in South Ayrshire met at Carnegie Library to celebrate completing an ‘English as a Second Language’ (ESOL) course.

Councillor Margaret Toner, Depute Leader of South Ayrshire Council and Portfolio Carrier for Community Services who attended the celebration said: “I would like to congratulate everyone who completed the course. Communication is important, being able to learn or improve their English skills is very important for people whose first language is not English.

The ESOL project was funded by the Scottish Government, and consisted of lending “Teach Yourself English” material to members of the Chinese and Polish communities within South Ayrshire. The groups met once a week for 16 weeks to practice their English with sessions led by two tutors Sally Lee and Evelyn McWhinnie. The classes proved to be very popular and funding has been released from the Scottish Government to allow the project to run for an additional 20 weeks.

At the end of the course participants were asked what they thought of the course, their comments show the benefits the course brought to participants:

• Now able to tell the time.
• Can give and understand directions particularly using left and right.
• Better at listening to and understanding Scottish people, especially Scottish words.
• Because I don't work I don't know many people and this has given me the opportunity to meet people.
• More confidence in speaking to shop assistants and checkout staff at local supermarket.
• Although I knew English words my pronunciation has improved.
• Improved reading skills.