Thank you to the Nissan Foundation! Taxi Pro was conceived by the ESL Director of TFLI, Angela Harris, who has nearly 20 years of experience working with non-native speakers of English.  For the past 6 years, she has been testing the language proficiency of cab drivers in Nashville, 85% percent of whom are foreign-born.  Just like other major cities, cab driving is a popular job especially for male refugees from Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kurdistan and Pakistan.  When Ms. Harris realized that there were persistent misunderstandings between Nashville’s drivers, passengers and business owners, she wanted to do something about it.  She and the Taxi Pro Team worked for nearly two years developing the framework for this project before presenting this proposal to the Nissan Foundation.  Now, we are proud to announce that we will hold the first session of Taxi Pro Training Courses this November, 2009!

The objectives of the program are to improve customer service for Nashville’s hospitality industry as well as increase the reputation and confidence of and in Nashville’s drivers.

The Taxi Pro program has three main components:

1) training on hospitality and customer service for all passengers, including those with disabilities, 2) training on Nashville’s geography and attractions, map reading and cultural expectations, and 3) training on the taxi ordinances and tricks of the trade. 

TFLI, the Transportation & Licensing Commission and the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau want to promote a positive image of Nashville and to improve the relationships among cab drivers, passengers, tourists and Nashville business owners.  We want visitors who come to Nashville to return to their home cities and tell stories about how professional their cab experience was here.  We believe that in one year, Nashville’s cab drivers will hold an unprecedented reputation, and Taxi Pro training will begin to achieve positive change throughout the region.

Nashville May Get New Wave of Refugees, Janell Ross

The Tennessean (read story):

"Today, Nashville's schools have the capacity to serve students in 131 languages and provide English as a Second Language courses for adults. Metro's Social Services Department and grants from the Tennessee Department of Health and Human Services to agencies such as the Sudanese Community and Women's Services Center [TFLI's partner organizaton], the Somali Community Center and Kurdish Human Rights Watch have also created a limited network of services for refugees."

Lowering the Language Barrier, Blake Farmer

The number of Latinos fatally-injured on the job has been climbing for years, due in part to language barriers with their English-speaking supervisors. One company chose TFLI in Nashville to try to bridge the gap.

Contractors Tackle Language Barrier, Blake Farmer

 At a job-site on Briley Parkway, Rogers Group hired TFLI to perform a specially designed curriculum with the workers, who receive their hourly wage for taking the class. 

Community Foundation

Community ESL, March-June 2001
The Community ESL grant, sponsored by the Community Foundation of Nashville, was designed to target a group of Latinos in Nashville who wished to better integrate into their workplaces, schools and immediate communities and who would have a better chance for advancement in their companies if they improved their English skills. Due to the need of ESL in the hospitality industry in Nashville, we chose the downtown area for our pilot program. The purpose of the grant was to provide an intensive English language course that focused on all areas of language acquisition including speaking, reading, writing and listening.

Project Access

TFLI's ESL Department particiapted in Project Access during its inception in 2003 and again in 2008. 

Originally, Project Access was a collaborative two-year program between the Frist Center and Nashville Public Library with funding from a National Leadership Grant (2003) for Library-Museum Collaboration by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Washington, D.C. These grants support innovative projects that model how museums and libraries can work together to expand their services to the public, with an emphasis on serving the community, using technology, or enhancing education. Project Access is designed to help increase adult English language learners’ skill in language, arts and computer literacy. Two hundred participants in the two-year program will engage in art-making, computer-based learning, museum and library visits through the Tennessee Foreign language Institute, Metropolitan Nashville Public School Adult Education Programs, which include the Refugee English Program and immigrant English classes, United Way Family Resource Centers, and the Salvation Army. Little Planet Learning, a Nashville technology company, has designed Project Access’s website with arts and Nashville native Red Grooms as host of the site. The website allows the program to have a wider impact in the community and nationally. A feature of this website will allow visitors to access their artwork created in ArtQuest that is stored on ArtQuest’s digital portfolio.

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Dollar General Literacy Foundation

Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity

Thanks to the Dollar General Literact Foundation, the Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity adds a formal English Language Learners’ (ELL) Program to the agency’s HomeWORKS curriculum. The Program will be developed in partnership with the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute (TFLI). The ELL offerings will consist of two consecutive, three-tiered, skill-based courses that will meet weekly for two hours over 10 consecutive weeks – a total of 20 hours instruction time dedicated to each course. Offered courses will include Beginning English, Intermediate English, and English Literacy. 

Through the fudnign of the Dollar General Literact Foundation, TFLI’s ESL Director Angela Harris partnered with Progreso Community Center’s Director Juan Canedo to provide literacy and ESL classes to at least 40 Hispanic immigrants who are not currently being served under existing language programs. Those to be served under the proposal include members of Progreso Community Center (PCC) as well as those interested learners from the community.  The goal is to integrate the immigrants into the English-speaking community so that they accomplish two of PCC’s organizational goals:

 
1. To develop leadership skills among the members of the community.
2. To support the improvement of the well-being, health and education of Hispanics.

A secondary benefit of the language classes is the enhancement of the social and economic skills of the members by:
1. Teaching non-literate immigrants to read and write on a basic level in English.
2. Further enhancing proficiency of those immigrants who speak a survival level English.
3. Improving workplace language skills in order to better participate in the local job market.

"Students arrive every night eager to begin classes.  Attendance is steady, and we realized our goal of enrolling 40 students in less than two weeks. The students at PCC have set a record for community ESL classes,” Harris said.  The classes are being taught by certified ESL teachers trained by professionals in TFLI’s TESL Certification course. 

 
“The collaboration between TFLI and PCC to teach English with the support of Dollar General Literacy Foundation demonstrates that this community-based effort is a concrete example of the commitment that Hispanic immigrants have to learn English,” Canedo said. 

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The Somali Community Center of Nashville (SCCN) partnered in this Contract Proposal with the Sudanese Community Association (SCAT) and the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute (TFLI) to meet the Social Adjustment and English Language Training needs and challenges that face eligible refugees in Nashville, Tennessee/Davidson County. Direct resettlement of refugees, family reunifications and secondary migrations from other states continue to make Nashville a leading national city for immigration. Refugees settling in the U.S. and locally over the past five years have mainly arrived from Africa, with majorities of them from Somalia and Sudan, plus others arriving from Ethiopia, Central African nations and Liberia. SCCN and SCAT developed strong, versatile social service programs to meet the growing demands for social adjustment presented by these and other refugees in Nashville. TFLI has a historic and accomplished resume as the city’s leading provider of adult language training, and is well-positioned to deliver English as Second Language classes to the eligible refugees this proposed program will serve. Classes were delivered in appropriate locations to maximize access by refugees.

Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee

The Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee (formerly, the Somali Community Center of Nashville) partnered with TFLI to continue Literacy classes and ESL classes and to implement a Citizenship class for refugees who are not currently being served under existing language programs. The refugees to be served under the proposal are those who have been in the USA for five (5) years or longer. Those in the U.S. over five years include many who are preparing for their Citizenship Examination. This proposed program intends to integrate the refugees into the English-speaking community so that they may enhance their social and economic skills both formally and informally.

The Sudanese Community and Women's Services Center

The SCWSC and TFLI have been partners since 2006. With the help of an earlier grant from NCAC, the dedication of volunteers, ESL instructors and TESL practice teachers, TFLI has been able to teach at the center four nights per week. The Sudanese refugees are learning to read, write and communicate in English. They have been able to get jobs and help their children adjust to school life, and many of them have received driver’s licenses and passed citizenship classes as a result. To continue these classes TFLI needs financial support. Many generous Nashvillians have made contributions, and we thank them. Listen to the podcast interview from SCWSC’s Executive Director, Gatluak Ter Thach, on Liberadio(!) .