CCAA Conversation Club: Building Community across and through Language This term, CCAA Conversation Club – a program bringing together English language learners and English speaking facilitators – is about to hold its first meeting on September 6th. CCAA-Santarém Conversation Club was originally started by lecturers Helton Santos and Vitor Carvalho and it has been held since 2010 at the CCAA library, cafeteria, classrooms, movie theater and at any place the Santarém English speaking community enjoys meeting and sharing talking and having fun. It consists of conversation sessions for English language learning participants and volunteer facilitators. The goal of the sessions is to increase confidence among participants in using the English language. CCAA Conversation Club differs from a traditional English as a Foreign Language classroom setting in that the facilitator’s role is to create opportunities for conversation and practice, not to teach lessons on structured speech. Communicating becomes more important than the form of the conversation. The terms “participant” and “facilitator” are used (rather than “teacher” and “student”) to emphasize that the relationship is based on sharing conversation, not transmitting information. The mission of CCAA Conversation Club is to provide a safe, non-threatening, and relaxed environment in which participants can practice and develop confidence in newly acquired English-speaking and listening skills and connect with community. The program aims to support a diverse group of English language learners of all ability levels and ages so that they communicate more confidently. CCAA has been very lucky to have the support of facilitators from all over the world, as well as a steady group of participants – from all language schools and high education institutions, with a special mention to UFOPA. One participant shared that she was shy at first about the idea of coming to the CCAA Conversation Club meetings. Now, she says it is her favorite part of her month. The program is as meaningful to facilitators as to participants. As one of our facilitators says, “I think I get more out of it than the participants do.” It is about community building for everybody. We invite participants and facilitators to share information about the CCAA Conversation Club with English language learners who might be interested in joining us. The program is held every last Friday evening of each month, from 06:30pm to 08:30pm, starting March/August at the CCAA-Santarém branch. For more information, please contact us through our land line: 93-3522-1005 or Facebook.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 14:21:11 +0000
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