The Salford project aiming to improve the English of refugees: Speak and Belong

Image credit: Speak and Belong

Salford prides itself on being a diverse city, welcoming a variety of cultures and backgrounds.

But for many residents, the chance to socialise, gain career opportunities and build connections is delayed through one factor: the language barrier.

With up to 43% of Manchester residents struggling with English and 18.3% of people in Manchester not speaking English as the first language, without support, Salford’s greatest strength of its diverse culture could quickly become its greatest weakness.

This is where Monika comes in. She's a languages teacher at the Lowry Academy, offering free English lessons in attempt to break the language barrier and get the community talking.

After being thrown in the deep end of learning English when she moved over to the UK, Monika now appreciates how difficult picking up the language can be. This motivated her to kick-start her sessions.

In November Monika ran free assessments every Saturday, that gave potential students a chance to be assessed on what level of English they spoke, and receive advice on what group they should attend.

Free Saturday assessments were held at the Lowry Academy in Walkden, in which about 20 people attended each session. Each person came with different stories and goals.

Some had lived in Salford for many years and want to use Monika’s sessions to be able to socialise easier and gain better work opportunities.

For others, they were a first chance at getting to grips with the language, building basic conversational language.

Su, a lady from China, says she's found these lessons an excellent way to smoothly transition into life in Salford: "I think because I only came to the UK for 5 months and I want to have better communication especially with the labourers and better communication in everyday life," she said.

This was Monika’s goal: offering practical guidance to a wide variety of people from all walks of life.

"We support mostly refugees and asylum seekers. We want to give them totally free English courses... All the backgrounds are welcome, all the cultures, all the ages. Whoever wants to improve their English or start there English, they can join us," she said.

The assessments gave Monika a chance to understand everyone’s levels of English. She's now started a variety of free sessions, that align with people’s skills, designed to push and perfect people's speaking skills.

Her latest offerings include conversational clubs, a women's and girl's empowerment course, and 'Too Great to Hate', a series of hate crime awareness sessions.

These free and inclusive sessions allow Monika to achieve her goal, encouraging more people to get involved, try something new and learn English.

More information about Speak and Belong is available here.