The Norwich teacher helping refugees take control of their new lives

Rather stops you in your tracks, doesn’t it? It’s something Nicky Turner from Norwich is very clear and passionate about and it’s a statement that has stayed with me ever since we spoke.

Imagine that your home, family, friends, job, pets, possessions and so much more have been taken away, and in addition to living in a different country and dealing with the associated trauma, one of the many things on your list for setting up your new life is to learn the language. Nicky is one of the people making sure that happens here in Norfolk.

Nicky Turner takes an english class for foreign students, some of whom are refugees (Image: Archant)

An ESOL (English as a Second or Other Language) specialist for the last 20 years, Nicky teaches English courses for adult refugees across the county, while also working with Norwich integration projects such as New Roots and English+.

In a typical class she has students from Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Cameroon and Ukraine. “It’s really good for them to see other nationalities and not feel like they’re on their own in this scenario,” she says.

“We used to have a project working with Syrians. We’re now working with Afghanis and more recently Ukrainians that are coming into the county. I’m trying to set up a course in Diss at the moment for Ukrainian speakers because the communities and families welcoming them have asked for a face-to-face class.”

The level at which a new student can speak and understand English can vary hugely, so the first thing Nicky does is establish their existing baseline - if they have one at all. The overall aim is to ensure everyone has some basic English, and can make themselves understood, and it’s why she set up a new course recently called Welcome to the UK, using functional language to help with everyday scenarios.

Nicky Turner takes an english class for foreign students, some of whom are refugees (Image: Archant)

One of Nicky’s classes is for those who don’t know any English. She encourages them to be able to give their email address clearly and spell their names when asked. They talk about things like shopping or going to the GP. Phrases that will get them through day-to-day living in the UK.

“They need to be really clear on who they are,” she says. “I’m very strong in my class that their identity is important. It’s easy to get the spelling of their names wrong unless they can be very clear about it. An identity can change overnight with one spelling error.”

Nicky bases her lessons, which take place both online and face-to-face, around everyday things, using local surroundings as inspiration. She might, for example, talk about landmarks in Norwich or the things you can buy on the market. This plays a big part in helping her students feel like they are part of a wider community.

“I give them solid examples of how to deal with the doctors, bank or benefits office as best I can in the knowledge that we’ll never be able to cover everything,” she explains. “But if they learn how to say, ‘I don’t understand, please can you speak more slowly?’ And if there’s really no communication, saying, ‘Please can you find an interpreter or use Google Translate?’ It’s really important.”

Nicky Turner takes an english class for foreign students, some of whom are refugees (Image: Archant)

With a classful of adults who have come to Norfolk from across the world, where do you start and how do you teach? Actually, Nicky finds a multilingual group much easier because the tendency is for students from the same country to revert to speaking their native language.

“What happens in monolingual groups is there’s always one who is better and will then explain it to the others in their language,” says Nicky. “But it means that people don’t have to try so hard, and this is their one chance to really try and focus. If you have a polylingual class, they have to speak English so I very much put them into pairs in different language groups to practise what we’re teaching.

“I introduce something, we will practise it, then they ‘perform’ it. I mix the different languages up. To be honest, I prefer that. It slows things down, but it means they really have to listen.”

Nicky’s classes aren’t simply out of a textbook; she’s a very visual teacher, using games, technology and models to complement learning. “It’s a lot of me running around like a loon, waving my arms around and acting it out!” she laughs.

“I use lots of objects and visual things to help them understand, and I speak in English the whole time. They might not get it all and that’s OK. The bits I want them to understand, they will get in the end. Being absolutely accurate isn’t the point, it’s about being confident enough to communicate.”

Nicky Turner is teaching refugees English in Norwich (Image: Brittany Woodman/ Archant)

Nicky reckons it’s good to get started with learning English as soon as possible in an appropriate level class. For lower ability classes, she prefers teaching face-to-face, but online is sometimes a necessity. That said, it depends what technologies each person has access to.

Learning English not only holds the key to people settling in here and feeling more at home, but it can really aid employability, and the ease at which they can find work that suits their professional experience. “A lot of people come from high grade jobs,” says Nicky. “I’m teaching people who are bankers or have worked in the security forces or they’re lawyers. The only thing that’s stopping them in this country is their language level.

“I think there’s a tendency sometimes to say, ‘Just get any job you can.’ It’s almost like saying ‘Just be happy with what you get.’ OK, that might be necessary to start with to have some money coming in, but ultimately if they’re trained engineers, for example, they can be engineers in this country, they just need to work on their English. It’s only their language that’s stopping them.”