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<br />Narrative <br />page-3 <br /> <br />Instruction in English as a second language (ESL) is very <br />specialized. Educational techniques used in providing GED <br />tutoring are not effective when working with the ESL student. <br />Volunteer tutors have expressed a willingness to work with ESL <br />students if they could first be trained in ESL tutoring <br />techniques. <br /> <br />In JanuarYI 1988 we were able to offerl for the first timel a <br />structured program of training for a group of volunteer tutors. <br />We noticed that trained tutors remained in the program <br />significantly longer than tutors who had not been trained. <br />Thereforel we feel that a structured tutor training program is <br />essential to the success of our ESL program. <br /> <br />Another observation from our Lifelong Learning Project is that <br />once students develop a relationship of trust with their tutorsl <br />many of them seek help solving other problems. Our tutors are <br />often asked questions about food stampsl health carel low-income <br />housing I day care and other social service programs. Most of <br />them do not feel well equipped to answer these questions. We <br />want to bridge this information gap by establishing the library <br />as a center for information about social services. <br /> <br />Through our involvement with the San Marcos Interagency Council <br />we have discussed the problems of disseminating this information <br />to all the major social service providers in our community. <br />The Council agrees that it would be desirable to establish the <br />library as a central source of information about social service <br />programs. In addition to the Interagency Council several other <br />social agencies such as the Community Action AgencYI the Hays <br />County Women's Centerl the Adult Probation Department and the <br />San Marcos Ministerial Association have written letters of <br />support for this project. They can be found in Appendix B of <br />the narrative. <br /> <br />Specifically I what we plan to do is set up an area within the <br />Lifelong Learning Collection in which to display and disseminate <br />brochures about social services of particular interest to the <br />non-English speaking community. Whenever possiblel we will <br />obtain these brochures in both Spanish and English. We also <br />plan to produce and distribute a bilingual (Spanish-English) <br />directory of the major social service agencies. FinallYI we <br />would like to sponsor a social services fair at the library. <br />The fair will provide a chance for people to meet with <br />representatives from a wide variety of social agencies at one <br />convenient time and place. <br /> <br />Children who are raised in bilingual or non-English speaking <br />homes must also overcome problems associated with cultural <br />barriers.. Participation in a story time program can give them a <br />head start on this. Unfortunately I our weekly story time program <br />attracts almost no Hispanic participants even though it is one <br />of our most well-established and well-publicized programs. We <br />want to introduce those children to the story time concept and <br />