May 2000 
Vocational English as a Second Language By Sheldon J. Reber, Director of School and Community Relations
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T o hear Eureka Adult School teacher Catherine McNally tell it, there are subtleties in the English language that we never think about. “As English speakers, we don’t realize how subtle our pronunciations are. We pronounce two–word phrases such as ‘look out,’ ‘what’s new,’ and ‘come on,’ as run–on phrases,” McNally mentions. “In this class, we work with common phrases that are used in conversations,” McNally continued. McNally has been teaching for 20 years, and it’s easy to see why students in her Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL) class at Eureka Adult School enjoy her class. She engages them immediately with her exciting and vibrant teaching style. She offers individual students plenty of encouragement, and makes her class laugh when helping them learn the complex rules of speaking and understanding English. Her students broke up into small groups to practice asking a landlord questions about housing. “How much is the rent?” “Are the utilities included?” “When can I see the apartment?” Most of the students in her class work in the community, and the class is open entry–open exit. While learning English, VESL students also learn computer skills in order to practice writing letters and resumés. Many students are enrolled in the Adult School’s citizenship class. What does she love about her job? “I really enjoy helping my students overcome their shyness, get a job, or a better job by communicating more clearly with their employers and others,” McNally says. As her class laughs at another one of her jokes, it’s easy to see that they enjoy her teaching just as much as she enjoys teaching them.
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