Moving to a new country, it can be hard for some students to speak the language and start a new life. That’s why the English for Change club was created two to three years ago to teach international kids English by Amador student McKenna Warner.

The club was created to break language barriers by building relationships for international students. English for Change is open for anyone on Wednesday at Access in R121 for any students who want to join.

”This year students are working with students from Chinese and Spanish speaking countries that have come here to Amador,” said club advisor, Robert Palmer.

Members of the club work with a variety of international students. They first make lesson plans before meeting with the students online. 

“The amount of students varies on the club meetings and who can make it. My classroom is used as a kind of lesson planning center, and then after school over Zoom, that’s when the lessons go on. I’ve seen at most 15 members,” said Palmer.

Club members make decisions of how they want to run the club. While Palmer is the advisor, the members are the ones creating the lessons and coming up with material to teach students. 

“It’s a super student-driven club where (the students) are the ones that are curating the lesson plans, and it centers around a lot of vocabulary work for students to learn,” said Palmer.

Vocabulary is the hardest part of learning a new language since everything builds off of it such as reading, writing, and listening. Building off of vocabulary, teaching speaking and reading skills helps fluency when talking in a different language to someone else.

“Throughout the lessons, we’ll call on them to answer questions or resentence them, we also ask them questions, so it’s practicing their speaking and reading skills,” said Alice Li (‘23), who is in charge of the Chinese branch. 

English for Change not only teaches the English language, they also teach American culture in hopes of helping kids fit in with others. Club members teach holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, but also cultural foods and the sports teams in each state. 

“For the Chinese branch, we make our lessons about American cultures like sports, holidays, and food. We make our lessons based on that,” said Li.

The club helps build connections between the members of the club as well as the students. It gives the students confidence to make more friends in the future. 

“We’re kind of wrapping up this year as the school year winds down, but moving forward next year, if it’s something you’re interested in, you can always contact me,” said Palmer. “The club is open for anyone who wants to join.”