Country Homes Church celebrates 50 years of teaching English to immigrants
News Story and Photos by John McCallum | FāVS News
Herb Batterson claims he only has an eighth-grade education, and yet the Spokane truck driver writes poetry and short stories.
He is also a tutor at Country Homes English Language School (ELS) where he has helped immigrants to the United States learn English for over 10 years. One of a handful of volunteers, Batterson said he receives payment of a different kind — developing respect for people from different lands and the cultures they bring with them.
“You learn a lot and you learn more than you ever knew,” Batterson said.
The school — located in the Country Homes Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) near the intersection of Country Homes Boulevard and Wall Street — has been teaching immigrants English for almost 50 years. While currently assisting about 10 students learn the intricacies and nuances of the language, ELS Director and Country Homes Church Administrative Assistant Todd Gossett said they have the physical space and resources to help more.
All they need are more volunteer tutors.
“The only requirement (for tutors) is to speak English,” Gossett added.
ELS accepts all faiths and beliefs
ELS began in 1979 out of a desire in the Country Homes church to help refugees from Southeast Asia learn English. Some members had adopted or fostered families and individuals from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia who were escaping the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and they believed teaching English would help them to better assimilate into U.S. society.
Since then, according to the school’s information, 380 tutors have assisted 585 students from 58 countries learn a rather difficult language. Some of those countries include South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Mexico and more recently Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
“We give them a place of peace in a new world where things can be scary,” Gossett said.
Requirements to attend or tutor at ELS are few. Students must be a minimum age of 18 and have a desire to learn English.
Gossett said potential students fill out an application to attend, with volunteers available to help them complete the paperwork. There is no cost to attend the school, and tutors and students are asked to commit to “a full school year.”
Tutoring is done on a one-to-one basis, although Gossett said there are times when a tutor might take two students. The tutor and student review the student’s application, discuss things about the student’s life and experiences such as where they are from, what their family is like, education level and familiarity with English — all to help set up a tailored curriculum.
“We gradually decide where we’re going to go with them,” Gossett said.
Sessions are Monday and Wednesday from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. Gossett said they currently have 5-6 students attending both sessions and another three whose schedule only allows one day a week.
The school accepts students and tutors from all “beliefs, faiths and religions.” No evangelizing is done during the sessions.
As an example of the variety of ELS students, Gossett points to “Unity Blanket” hanging on the north wall of the church’s fellowship hall. The quilt is composed of squares made by former students from all over the world.
ELS assists with citizenship test
One student currently attending is Cleo Chavarin. Originally from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Chavarin came to the United States over 30 years ago, settling first in Salem, Oregon, before finding her way to Spokane.
Chavarin speaks English quite well and has attended Community Colleges of Spokane (CCS), earning a degree in greenhouse management and landscaping design. She is attending ELS to prepare her for taking the citizenship exams to become a U.S. citizen, a process she began in December 2024 and is still ongoing through numerous delays and requests for additional information.
Chavarin said her fear is not being able to focus enough to write answers to the exam questions, which she already has.
“There are 100 questions, so you don’t know what they’re going to ask,” she said. “They chose 20 of those questions and ask you only 10.”
Topics include geography, principles of American Democracy and U.S. history ranging from the colonial period to more recent events. Chavarin feels she knows the information but has fears about being able to relate that under pressure.
“I’m here (at ELS) to have someone ask me the questions and to help me relax my brain,” she said.
Chavarin is tutored by Paul McDonnell, who began with ELS in late April but previously taught English as a Second Language courses at CCS for four years. He said citizenship applicants are asked to write declarative sentences as part of their test answers in order to see how good their writing skills are, which relates to Chavarin’s apprehensions and reasons for being at ELS.
“We’re working on that now,” McDonnell said. “We’re looking at strategizing about how to help her relax so she can express her skills and knowledge on the subjects.”
Internet and text instruction materials
Another current student is Fariba Roustmi. From Kabul, Afghanistan, Roustmi came to the U.S. after the fall of the former Afghan government to the Taliban in 2020, traveling first through Spain and then to a refugee camp in Indiana before joining family in Spokane in November 2021.
Roustmi’s English is limited right now, so when asked if her journey was difficult, she utilized the cellphone app Google Translate.
“Yes,” she replied.
Translation applications help a lot with teaching students English, Gossett said, adding another program is “iTranslate.” The school has an “extensive library of materials,” but their go-to resource is the “Oxford Picture Dictionary,” which comes in a variety of English-to-other-language formats, utilizing pictures and art work to illustrate words and meanings.
“That’s our biggest tool, except now we use the internet so much,” Gossett said, adding he is able to find other materials if students and/or their tutors request it.
Roustmi’s tutor is Jill Miller, a retired pharmacist. Besides the truck driver Batterson and college instructor McDonnell, Gossett said they have one tutor who is a nurse, another who is an accountant and another who taught English in China.
Miller is in her third year at ELS, having started as the COVID pandemic was easing when she was “looking for something to do.” She is working with Roustmi on English grammar points, trying to help the mother of six children — four adults, one graduating high school and the youngest entering this fall — with some of the harder nuances of the language.
“I’m trying to help her with question words,” Miller said. “When something is, or isn’t.”
It’s a language aspect even native-born Americans struggle with often. For Roustmi, it’s one of the harder things about learning English.
“Grammar, yes,” she said after reading her phone.
Visiting family abroad and returning to the U.S.
Gossett said each student who comes to ELS seeks to learn English for a variety of reasons. For Roustmi, whose children all speak English, it’s to function more independently to help her family.
Chavarin didn’t speak any English when she came to the U.S. over 30 years ago. She learned the language back then by attending ELS.
It enabled her to get employment and earn her U.S. Permanent Resident Card, aka “Green Card,” which carries a number of conditions to maintain, especially when leaving the country, and must be renewed periodically. Chavarin said she wants to return to Mexico for extended periods to visit family while still returning to the U.S.
U.S. citizenship would help with that.
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), employment is not required for Green Card holders who return from traveling abroad. However, they must “demonstrate their intent to maintain their permanent resident status, especially if they have been absent for a long period.”
CIS recommends obtaining a Re-Entry Permit for trips longer than six months. It’s required for trips longer than a year.
“That’s why I want to be a citizen, so I can come back whenever I want,” Chavarin said, adding she is less sure about such traveling given immigration enforcement methods being enacted by the current administration.
“Right now, I’m afraid to go,” she said.
Developing relationships
ELS’s “all are welcome” approach to tutoring foreign-born adult students is reflected in the interactions between tutor and student. The school’s days of operation align with the Mead School District yearly calendar, observing the same holidays and closing school during the summer and if Mead schools are closed due to weather.
Gossett said the setting helps foster a sense of community among participants. Cellphone numbers are often exchanged, and socialization can take place outside of school sessions, including summer.
The biggest challenge for some students can be transportation as only one Spokane Transit Authority route services the church, making stops at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. It’s one of the challenges that has kept other foreign-born students from attending, Gossett said, but they try to find ways to work around the transportation difficulties.
The biggest thing about the ELS, besides what it teaches, is that it fosters a devotion among the students and tutors. Not just to learning, but also to each other.
“The tutors are here purely out of love,” Gossett said. “They cherish each other.”
And with most communication forms, the best way to teach it is to do it.
“It’s more of a conversation thing,” Batterson said. “It’s the best way to learn.”
