Shelley Goad listens as one of her students pronounces words during an introductory English class at Westbrook Adult Education. Demand for English language courses for adults is so high that schools face long waiting lists and are forced to refer students elsewhere. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

WESTBROOK – “Zero, one, two, three,” the class says carefully in unison, following Shelley Goad’s lead. Enoque Makeng Diampa calls out five.

“‘Four! You always skip that one,’ Goad says with a laugh.

Goad teaches an English literacy class at the Westbrook Community Center; that means her students come in with no English skills at all. They come from Cambodia, Laos, Angola and other nations. Their native languages ​​include French, Portuguese, Lingala, Cambodian and Thai.

Goad knows some high school French, but when it comes to communicating with students, she does so with a mix of hand gestures, Google Translate and personal contact.

“I try to learn a little bit about each one of them,” she said. “To connect.”

Goad’s 10 students are among 322 taking adult English classes through Westbrook’s adult education program this fall, and thousands more in the Portland region are lining up to take the classes. There are many asylum seekers from Africawho arrived in Maine by the thousands in recent years, fleeing conflict and persecution in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.

Adult education is offered through public school districts across the state. There are more than 70 centers in Maine, typically offering courses in academics (language arts and math), workforce training (welding and certified nursing), and enrichment (weaving and photography). Most are free.

English for Speakers of Other Languages, or ESOL, courses are common at adult centers. Students are assessed and placed into a level based on their initial proficiency. But the number of multilingual speakers in the region has increased, and many adult programs say they simply don’t have more room in their classes.

Portland and Lewiston have seen such high demand that they began sending students to Westbrook. Then Westbrook got so busy it has had to send some to Gorham.

Panatda Senasy, originally from Laos, spells out English words she recognizes from a textbook while her teacher, Shelley Goad, left, helps other students in an introductory English class at Westbrook Adult Education. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

EARLY LANGUAGE NEEDS

Westbrook offers English classes from Basic Literacy to Level Six. Right now, intermediate courses for levels three and four have the greatest demand, according to Westbrook English Language Learning Coordinator Shila Cook.

“Three and four tend to be where students learning a new language, in our case English, kind of get stuck,” Cook said. “It’s the big turning point between the phrases a tourist would learn to get around, to having fluent conversations.”

In two years, the demand for English classes in the community has more than doubled. In fiscal year 2022, Westbrook enrolled 176 students. In 2024, that number was 476.

“Westbrook as a community has been slowly growing and has been growing at a faster rate lately,” said director Jennifer Mull-Brooks. She said the school district has seen a big growth in the number of multilingual students. “We’re growing at the same rate. As elementary schools grow, we generally get the parents of those students.”

Shelley Goad, right, helps Enoque Makengo Diampa and Aminata Yesu, both originally from Angola, pronounce words during a beginner’s English class at Westbrook Adult Education. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Mull-Brooks said students range from ages 17 to 70, with some families and couples coming to classes together.

Many Westbrook adult ed students are individuals who receive General Assistance, a program run by Maine municipalities that provides money so that people who cannot support themselves can pay for basic needs. The municipality may require recipients to participate in education or workforce training, which may include English courses for those who are not proficient.

Some students are also professionals who worked as teachers or doctors in their home countries, but their skills did not transfer to the United States

“Just imagine going to another country and being used to being able to take care of yourself, take care of your own children, take care of all your own business, and then you just can’t. And you don’t even speak the language to be able to try,” Mull-Brooks said. “So that’s what most of our students come to us with.”

TRANSPORT CHALLENGES

As the largest adult education program in Maine, Portland is a magnet for adult English courses for the entire region. It is also at the center of Maine’s migrant community. This has led to a demand that largely overshadows what the district can offer.

So far this year, Portland has enrolled about 1,300 students in its English courses. But there are at least 1,000 people on the waiting list — and director Abbie Yamamoto said that’s right where they stopped counting.

“We’ve always had a constant demand,” she said. “But it’s been beyond our capacity since a couple of years ago when the number of asylum seekers arriving just ballooned.”

Shelley Goad teaches students how to pluralize English words. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Portland offers 45 English classes across six levels. Yamamoto said they are trying to increase capacity by adding remote classes, but the waiting list remains large. The school even has a waiting list that ensures students are placed as efficiently and quickly as possible and has begun redirecting students to nearby adult education programs in places like Westbrook and South Portland when they have access. Yamamoto said the district will also reassign instructors to different levels to match needs.

Portland’s waiting list can help make referrals, but limitations like transportation and local awareness remain a barrier.

“There shouldn’t be any reason why we have under 10 people in a class when people are (on a waiting list.) I think that’s something we need to figure out is, what is the pipeline?” Gorham’s adult editor Bridget Kahn said.

Gorham offers two of its four ESOL classes at the First Parish Congregational Church on Main Street because of its proximity to transitional housing for migrants and to the bus stop.

Their relatively new program is not as full as its neighbors, but it is growing. Last year there were 14 English students. This year, there are 22. Kahn said students come from a couple of communities, and Gorham also offers a remote option.

Kahn used to work at Portland Adult Education, but said she moved to Gorham because she saw the need for a more regional approach to adult education.

“It just seems like we need to think about our English programming and workforce more as a regional effort versus program by program,” she said. “Share resources, ensure students can move through programs and programs seamlessly.”

Students Kim Duond, left, and Savy Boubon, both originally from Cambodia, participate in a beginner’s English class at Westbrook Adult Education, inside the Westbrook Community Center, on Tuesday. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Yamamoto, of Portland, said other options for English classes, such as those offered by nonprofits In Her Presence, the Salvation Army and the Portland Immigrant Welcome Center, are an important part of easing the burden in the city.

But when it comes to partnering with nearby communities, transportation and access can be prohibitive.

“A lot of the people who come in, who have a more entry-level English need, usually means they haven’t been here very long and a lot of their life infrastructure isn’t set up yet, and that includes transportation,” Yamamoto said. “So being accessible by public transportation is really important.”

COLLABORATION SOLUTIONS

Yamamoto also sees partnership with labor as an important solution. If employers can offer on-site English lessons, it frees up space for more students in traditional classrooms. If they can pay employees for their time in English classes, that’s even better.

“It would be good if there were employer partners who would start doing lessons on site, but with the understanding that this is not only helping themselves, but it is a kind of general investment in the community,” she said. “The more you can work with your employees in a transparent way and help them develop in all the areas that they need as a professional development opportunity, the investment will return.”

Shelley Goad listens to a student during an introductory English class at Westbrook Adult Education on Tuesday. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

Westbrook has a partnership like this with Luke’s Lobster packing plant in Saco. Two years ago, around 80% of the facility’s employees were migrants. Cook and Mull-Brooks said that after some growing pains, the school has figured out how to meet employees where they are as much as possible by installing computers in the break room with learning programs, equipping students with laptops and collaborating with an app that students can use to practice on their phones.

The program is funded by a grant that enables employees to receive financial incentives and career mobility as they progress in learning, and allows their spouses to participate. Classes are drop-in, with shifts during the workday and lobster season.

“So it’s about figuring out exactly how to make it so that no matter where or when a student works, they can still access classes,” Cook said.

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