PIG assisting farm workers with communication skills
By Marianne Paton
pineisland@breezenewspapers.com

In an effort to help its employees better fit into the island community,
one Pine Island business is helping workers with their communication
skills. Pine Island Growers currently employees farm workers, many of
whom have a very limited command of the English language and have
difficulty functioning within the island society as a result. To help
them with this situation, the owners of PIG began a special program
that not only helps its workers learn better language skills, but
provides them with other necessary tools which will make their lives, as
well as those around them, easier. Instructing the classes are Mike
Nabors, Susan Johnson and Sharon Anderson, all Pine Island residents who
were trained by Literacy Volunteers of Lee County.

"We try to tailor the lessons to suit different levels of ability. Our
curriculum is made to fit for the whole class or on a one-to-one basis,"
said Johnson. "These folks are eager to learn, but work and home
responsibilities make it difficult for them to take the time on their
own, and I find it amazing that their employers have set this up
allowing them to learn here where they work."

The lessons are conducted in a special classroom at the headquarters of
PG in Bokeelia. Classes are held once a week for an hour each time over
a six-week period. Currently there are 10 students enrolled in the
second round of lessons at PIG.
According to Johnson, the training provided by LVLC is very extensive
and does not require the trainee to speak Spanish.
"In fact, they prefer that you don't speak any other languages as you
are forced to communicate with the students in English only," said Johnson.

Last week's session began with the handing out of a SHARE menu which the
students were asked to read out loud.

"This not only helps them to understand things like the abbreviation for
the word pound, but also serves as an opportunity for them to learn
about and perhaps take advantage of the SHARE program hosted by the Pine
Island United Methodist Church," said Johnson. "We try to make it fun,
but at the same time provide helpful information."

All of the students are employees of PIG and instructor Nabors said it
would be beneficial for the students to know the names of the trees they
were tending to by their English names. An order list was passed out to
each of the students, who were then each asked to clearly pronounce the
names of one of the palm trees on the list.

Another tool provided by Nabors was a drawing which was used for a word
association exercise. The page pictured numbered tools and a separate
work sheet had just the name of each of the tools indicated in the
picture. The students were asked to place the number of the tool
alongside the appropriate English spelling of the item in the picture.

Betsy Haesemeyer with PIG said these lessons could benefit not only her
employees, but other growers on Pine Island who have non-English
speaking workers as well.

"We began the program here because of something Mike Nabors had said.
When speaking about our workers, he would often say 'Why don't they
learn English?' Then it occurred to him that he could get training and
teach them English himself," said Haesemeyer. "This is something our
people not only need, but they want it, too, so it is important to us to
do this for them.

"We also would like to see this same opportunity take advantage of by
other growers here on the island, and if they would like to have their
workers exposed to this program, we would be happy to point them in the
right direction."

To be a LVLC tutor, volunteers must be at least 18 years of age, be a
high school graduate, bee literate in English, need not have previous
teaching experience, need not speak another language and be available to
meet with a student or small group at least weekly for one year.

For information about becoming a LVLC tutor, call 239-242-4374.

Article reprinted from The Pine Island Eagle, week of Wednesday 28, 2008