Dr Gloria Chamorro, Lecturer in Applied Linguistics in the Department of English Language & Linguistics, has initiated a volunteering project in collaboration with Jane Short from the Centre for English and World Languages and Kent Refugee Action Network, for English Language & Linguistics students to teach English to refugees.
The project involves the students teaching English to a group of ten refugees (16 to 18 years old) for two hours every week. The initiative makes use of the Erasmus+ Online Linguistics Support programme, which has recently become available for refugees.
So far, five students from the Department, including four postgraduates and one undergraduate, have signed up to participate in the teaching at Kent’s Canterbury campus, which will be supervised by Gloria and Jane.
Describing the project, Gloria said: ‘This is a very exciting initiative because it not only helps these young refugees to develop their English language skills so that they can integrate into their local community and access mainstream education or apply for a job, but it also allows our students to gain language teaching experience, which will help them in their future professional careers.’
The teaching began in the second week of November. ‘So far, the feedback received from the refugees, the organisation and the students has been extremely positive,’ explains Gloria. ‘After having seen the commitment from all parties involved, we are planning on training more students to start teaching next term so that more refugees can benefit from this initiative.’
For more details of the initiatives of the Kent Refugee Action Network, please see their website here: https://kran.org.uk