LINC Program Story of Success

LINC Program Story of Success

LINC Students Talk to Mary Anne Peters

by Soran Kareem and Raed Assaf

Today our topic is the LINC program at Mohawk College. What is it?

What do students do there? We can ask many questions to give us the big picture about this program. The best person who gives us these answers is Mary Anne Peters.

Let us start asking the questions one by one.

Who is Mary Anne Peters?

Mary Anne Peters is the coordinator for the LINC program at Mohawk College. She has worked at Mohawk College since 2002. She began as a part-time teacher and before that she taught English in the community and ESL. She also worked at a community organization and she did some research at university. She has a degree in teaching English as a Second Language from Brock University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Science from McMaster University.

She got into teaching English after her travel to South America in 1988-1989. That took her out of comfortable and safe world that she lived in and showed her that not everyone in the world has the same living conditions and comfort like in Canada. She was in a new country, new culture and language, and so she realized how difficult it is to figure things out and get by. It motivated her to want to work with newcomers, particularly with language. She finds her job fantastic because she always learns new things; people come with knowledge from around the world with so many different experiences and stories to tell. She feels this makes Canada better.

Let us go back to first question, what is the LINC program?

Mary Anne tells us that the LINC program is Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada. It is a program paid for by the Canadian government through Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The idea is to provide language skills and knowledge about the country that will help to build new lives here.

As a federal program, it began in 1990 with levels one, two and three. In late 1990s level four and five were added. They have made it possible to teach up to benchmark eight.

How many classes and students does the LINC program at Mohawk have?

Mary Anne: It has a hundred-fifty full time LINC students plus the Workplace Preparation Program, which that makes the amount one hundred seventy five students plus part time classes, with some outside students and some from full time classes.

How many teachers are in the LINC program?

Mary Anne: LINC and WPP have eighteen teachers, and each class is taught by two different teachers.

What do they teach the students?

Mary Anne: Every class is different because people come with different needs, skills and priorities. The teachers find out what the students are interested in to plan what they are going to teach. It involves language in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and the rules of organizing what you are doing and saying, cultural things, and strategies for getting by. The classes offer a lot more than just language.

What are the differences between Mohawk and other providers?

Mary Anne: Mohawk is different from other providers because here we study inside the college with access to great resources such as good classrooms, many smart rooms, the computer labs, the library, and all of the infrastructure of a college. It is a good learning environment. Mohawk also has students who are very motivated and driven towards their goals. Most of them have a very high education (university or graduate degrees or high level diplomas).

What are the rights of students the LINC program at Mohawk College?

Mary Anne: They are Mohawk students and have the same rights and responsibilities of all Mohawk students. There is a Mohawk Student Rights and Responsibilities Office that will deal with student behaviour problems or complaints by students about what is happening in the classroom or program or at the College in general. They have the right to learn in a safe and respectful environment without discrimination.

What is the plan for the future?

Mary Anne: Planning for the future always depends on money from the Canadian government, but we have actually received funding for two summer classes with care for students’ children plus a new 5/6 evening class (Monday to Thursday) and a new 5/6 Friday class  for September.  

What are some challenges that you have in this program?

Mary Anne: One of the challenges is balancing the high expectations of students and what we can give them. Another challenge is having good resources. We have access to good textbooks but sometimes cannot find resources to teach people what they need.

Finally Mary Anne sometimes sees students who often focus only on marks, which may stop them from learning. They think the assessment is the most important. It is more useful for them to think about what and how they are learning and what is most beneficial and least stressful for both students and teachers.

Soran Kareem and Raed Assaf are students in the LINC program at Mohawk College. Soran is a lawyer from Kurdistan who arrived in Montreal, Canada in 2015. His goal is to acquire the English required to study a Master in Law. He loves writing and being involved in the community. Raed studied Tourism and Hotel Management at Al-Baath University of Syria. He will be volunteering at the Tall Ship Regatta on Canada Day and on the HMCS Haida this summer. Both Soran and Raed are regular contributors to the Newcomer Voices blog.