The project is the result of a collaboration between the Learning Skills Council, the 91Èȱ¬, the Broughton Trust and Pendleton College. Over the seven week course, learners from all over the world improve their English skills while getting to know each other by telling stories about their lives. The stories range from the moving to the comical, but one thing they all have in common is that they are true-life stories told by the learners in their own words and their own voices. The tutors, from the Broughton Trust and Pendleton College, give support throughout the whole process. As part of their training for the course, they even told some stories of their own – one about his time as a former miner, another about going into labour in a Sikh temple!
| Radio Storytelling Producer Marie Crook |
Everyone is delighted with the success of the first course. The learners have brushed up their English skills and computer skills and they all feel much more confident about speaking English in public. They made such good friends on the course that they asked Pendleton College to provide a further creative writing course that they could join as a group. Second Language builds on the success of other 91Èȱ¬ projects, Telling Lives and Inside Lives, both of which encouraged members of the public not only to share their stories with the world, but also to learn the skills to enable them to produce their stories themselves. Radio Storytelling Producer Marie Crook says ‘It’s been a privilege to work with the learners and to hear their stories. Everyone has a story to tell and it’s great to be able to bring these stories to a wider audience – they all deserve to be heard.’ |