Polk State students help local factory employees improve English speaking skills

A collaborative effort among Polk State College, Leadership Winter Haven and Cardinal Equipment Services recently resulted in students helping employees develop skills that could pay dividends long-term.

Professor Carol Martinson’s College Composition I class, which has 25 students, worked with employees at Cardinal Equipment Services who want to improve their English-speaking skills. During the first of three scheduled sessions, students served as tutors for the employees, helping with terms specific to the factory setting such as forklift, pallet and others. As far as students are concerned, two of the course’s objectives are to enhance communication and critical thinking.

“As a result of (COVID-19), so many students lack verbal communication skills and so I have built a unit on conversation that also ends with an essay to help the students hone on those skills,” Martinson said. “These activities certainly utilize and strengthen these skills. Everyone was participating and seemed engaged.”

The students used flashcards made by Polk State’s ESOL Club, which is co-advised by Martinson and Professor Susan Vanbenthuysen, to help the employees. After working with the students, employees said sentences in English in front of the room. Successfully completed sentences were followed by thunderous applause.

In total, 23 employees – about 1/6 of the workforce at Cardinal Equipment Services’ Winter Haven facility – took part in the session. Leadership Winter Haven, which includes Amy Bratten, Polk State Provost for Academic Affairs and Workforce Education, and Betsy Cleveland, President and CEO of the Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce, played a role in making the event happen.

“Our employees were excited and engaged,” said Chris Smith, General Manager for Cardinal Equipment Services and Leadership Winter Haven member. “They cheered each other on. They were still talking about it days later.”

The idea came to life after Cardinal Equipment Services held a listening session with its employees about ways the company could better serve its workforce. A good portion expressed a desire to communicate better with others at work. After watching Bratten give a presentation at a Leadership Winter Haven event, Smith realized that Polk State could help.

“A lot of our Spanish-speaking employees were frustrated with not being able to talk more with management,” Smith reflected. “They also expressed concern that they would not be able to move up in the company.”

For Martinson’s classes, community-based learning projects are nothing new. A longtime project of the class has been serving dinner to residents of Lakeland Presbyterian Apartments – an older demographic. After the meal, students interviewed residents and wrote papers about what they learned from them. Community-based learning projects have benefits that go beyond the classroom – for both the community and the students.

“I thought it would be more nerve-racking, but it was a great experience,” student Hailey Gardner added. “The people were friendly, excited to learn and really seemed to have a good time.”

The first session focused strictly on vocabulary. Impressed with how quickly the employees were able to learn and recite the words, the class returned earlier this month for a second session that included an element of grammar.

“It was a very good experience for me,” student Logan Rossman said. “One of my big takeaways was that how I communicate is heavily dependent on the other person’s understanding of English. I really had to think about what to say and how to communicate before I said things.”

Paired with a man who moved from Puerto Rico 13 years ago, Rossman also took notice of how quickly the employees went through the cards. He noted that as the session went on, both the students and employees got more comfortable.

“It might have been more helpful for us than for them,” Rossman opined. “It made me want to improve my conversation-ability with people I’m meeting for the first time. It was a fun, conversational activity for me.”

Snacks were provided during the sessions. In some cases, Martinson noted, employees and students were so deeply engaged in conversation that they forgot food was involved altogether.

“It was educational for us as well because we learned the words in Spanish,” Gardner recalled. “It felt less like a tutoring session and more like we were friends hanging out. It was light and sometimes funny.”

With two sessions in the books, Smith said that Cardinal Equipment Services plans on adding a new wrinkle to the initiative come fall. To further enhance communication between the workforce and supervisors, members of management will work to learn and engage in conversational Spanish.

“We’re going to do it both ways,” Smith explained. “Our workforce is very diverse and we’re proud of that. As an employer, we want everyone to have the opportunity to be successful.”