LITERACY @ ECSD

One of the major issues within the Edmonton LINC and ESL community has always been that Literacy students were (a) not clearly identified (b) not understood with regards to their language needs and (c) mixed in with Literate students for their language learning.  This was not only frustrating and unsuccessful for the students but also for the teachers – Literacy students were unable to achieve the goals set for literate students, and teachers were dealing with complicated multi-level classes.  ERLAC (Edmonton Regional LINC Advisory Committee) is comprised of all the LINC Service Providers (SPOs) in the City of Edmonton, along with Immigration Canada representatives and LARCC (Language Assessment, Referral, and Counselling Centre). 

 

Again, over the years, there had been endless discussion within ERLAC regarding the plight of the literacy student.  Within this group of SPOs, on October 24, 2013, it was agreed by all the SPOs that Literacy should only be offered at designated LINC schools within the City and so this opened the doors to a new system.  LARCC applied a Literacy screening test, if necessary, and students were only able to attend Norquest College or Edmonton Catholic School District (ECSD) at Sacred Heart Centre starting in September 2014. Bow Valley College played a large and valuable role in mentoring the ECSD LINC program by providing workshops, guidance and feedback on setting up a Literacy program ….and, so, the program began with classes ranging from Foundations to Phase III and classes were offered between 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  and 1:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. along with classes in the evening.