The offerings were approved this summer by the Arkansas Department of Education, according to Dr. Lynne Belcher, a professor of English at SAU who will be teaching the courses. Belcher, whose doctoral work was in the area of teaching English as a Second Language, said the courses are designed to help educate graduate and undergraduate students on the methods of teaching a new language as well as how to help students get through issues such as culture shock, which is common among people from other countries.

“I am happy to be able to use some of my experience and knowledge to help area students,” Belcher said. “This program will prepare educators to handle having non-native English speakers in their classes. Teaching English to those who don’t speak it as their first languages is very different from any other kind of teaching. The first thing teachers usually will encounter is culture shock, especially for young children who didn’t have any choice sometimes in leaving their home countries.”

Belcher said her first experience with teaching international students was in 1978 with Vietnamese refugees. Addressing the cultural differences is the first step in helping people become comfortable enough to begin learning another language, she said.

“When you work with internationals, you have to be able to see your culture through other eyes, Belcher said. “One can’t learn a second language if he or she rejects a culture.”

Besides showing teachers how to approach people from other cultures, the TESOL courses will also help teachers understand how students learn a second language and how it differs from learning a first language and how to assess what their students have learned in terms of reading and writing, speaking and listening. It also will provide a practicum of all teaching strategies involved in TESOL courses.

For more information about the courses, call the office of Liberal and Performing Arts at 870-235-4200. Interested students may also call Dr. Elizabeth Davis, 870-235-4212 (ehdavis@saumag.edu) or Dr. Lynne Belcher, 870-235-4213 (lrbelcher@saumag.edu ) or visit www.saumag.edu.

According to Willis, the first Bray was published on Sept. 25, 1923. From 1923 to 1931, the Archives only had three issues, one from 1927 and two from 1928. Other missing periods include the years 1944-1945 and 1956-1957 as well as the spring semester 1954.

Two men have recently sent materials to the SAU Archives. Fred Holt of Dallas gave photos for the campus and students that his mother, Faye Adams made while attending SAU from 1914-1918. Another donation came from Donald Scantland of Streetsboro, Ohio who donated two copies of the Bray from 1928 that his aunt, Lois Scantland, Bray editor of that year, had saved.

Donations of photos of the school and students are also welcome, but because of space limitations, material objects such as clothing are not being collected. For more information about making donations to the SAU Archives, contact Willis at 870-235-4223.