A Sussex County library expands its English Second Language (ESL) program.
The Frankford Public Library is reinvigorating its partnership with Literacy Delaware.
Library director Betsy Reichart says that relationship dissipated over time after starting back in the early 2000's.
“When I came on as the new director in the fall, it was one of my first initiatives to revamp that relationship with them and to bring back ESL tutoring, live classes and the addition of a Bilingual Storytime to be able to provide for our residents,” Reichart said.
Reichart says Literacy Delaware now provides three tutors to work with students who sign up for adult ESL classes.
Literacy Delaware is a non-profit that provides free reading and educational tutoring for adults 16 years-old or older.
It’s outreach director Glenn Shuster says the program started in Wilmington in the 1980’s, but has focused on Sussex County in the last 4-5 years because of its growing Hispanic population.
"While we traditionally tutor one-on-one with a tutor and a learner - as we like to call our students - there also seems to be a need and an opportunity to have small groups of adults, primarily women - about 85% of the people that we have as learners are women - who want to learn to read better; some are foreign born and some are native born,” said Shuster.
Reichart also notes thaat the library has also hired a bilingual library assistant to better serve the Hispanic community.
The deadline to sign up for the latest round of adult ESL classes at the Frankford Library is Wednesday, Feb. 26. Once registration closes, Reichart saysclass times will be set and staff will determine the level of students and how it will set up large-group or small-group instruction.
You can call the Library to sign up at (302) 732-9351.
