English for the Elderly

​Team Lead: ​Colin Xie
Team member: Lauren Kan, Max Yang, Emily Wu, Sophia Wu

Project Abstract:
Part 1: Empowerment
​English for the Elderly is a project by Colin Xie, Lauren Kan, Max Yang, Emily Wu, and Sophia Wu. Our goal is to aid elderly Chinese men and women with limited English speaking proficiency and experience by providing them with accessible English learning resources on a specially curated website, one-on-one lessons with high school or college student volunteer tutors, and workshops for learning how to navigate online tools. We also hold monthly group exchanges to give them an opportunity to put their pronunciation and vocabulary skills into practice, as well as interact with other seniors. This improves their ability to communicate in everyday scenarios and increases their confidence in using English. Furthermore, these programs can be a chance for seniors to connect with youth. With support from volunteers and by maintaining a resource hub for English learning, we hope to leave a lasting impact beyond this summer.

Part 2: Adaptation
Since our project began in June, we have hosted 8 online tutoring sessions, 2 per week on Fridays and Sundays. These tutoring sessions included 9 different volunteer tutors and 12 different elderly Chinese men and women, mostly split into 1-on-1 pairs for 1.5 hour lessons. These lessons went over English dialogues, short stories, and vocabulary relevant to the students' daily lives.
We are also finalizing our plans for the website, workshops, and in person meetups, which had to be postponed because our team is busy with summer camps, other volunteering commitments, and college applications. July’s in person meetup will take place at the Pacific Highlands Ranch library community room, and is scheduled for July 30.
In place of the originally planned volunteer workshop hosted on Zoom, we have decided that it would be more beneficial long term to add resources on the website so that anyone with access to the website can use and help asynchronously. We are also working on a summary video that details the process of teaching, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) and tips, and multiple links to external resources.
Part 3: Implementation
In total, we hosted 17 online tutoring sessions on Fridays and Sundays every week. These sessions involved 12 volunteer tutors and 13 elderly students. We also held 2 in-person meetups/workshops, the first to get ideas for our website and the second after a first draft was completed, to demonstrate, get feedback, and make improvements.
Our website was completed with resources categorized based on type and difficulty level. These include videos, dialogues, games, and short stories, with options for beginner, intermediate, and advanced English learners. The website can be easily switched between English and Chinese, to make it easier for those with limited English proficiency to navigate. In addition, the website links to an advanced English to Chinese translator for use by elderly students who may have difficulties understanding certain phrases.
We also added a FAQ section for new volunteer tutors, and a short summary video with advice on teaching the elderly.