ESL symposium speaker knows the frustration students can face

KimOanh Nguyen-Lam came to the United States from Vietnam as a teenager in 1975 without knowing a word of English. Next month, she will speak at the University of Arkansas' English as a Second Language’s annual symposium.

"My first year in the U.S., as a high school student, was a huge culture shock," Nguyen-Lam, who was the only Asian in a small Colorado community, said. "I had never been exposed to English before, and now I was surrounded by it. It was just noise. It was very stressful and I couldn't make out words. It was traumatic."

She said she remembers being angry as she sat in a classroom.

"I thought there must be a better way to teach kids like me who want to learn," she said.

Eventually, she earned a psychology degree and took an aptitude test that said she would be a good teacher. She was placed as a volunteer at a school with many immigrants just like her who did not understand the English language.

"I was sent to volunteer at a school with a lot of newcomers from Cambodia, Laos and the second wave of boat people from Vietnam," she said. "There were also a lot of children from Mexico. I knew what they were going through and how to work with them."

Nguyen-Lam is now the program director of the U.S Department of Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition.

At the Feb. 24 symposium at Fayetteville’s Hilton Garden Inn, Nguyen-Lam will address two toolkits the USDE is working on to help teach ESL and provide resources to help students adjust to living in America.
Registration ends February 10 and costs $75 for full-time students and $140 for professional educators.