Miguel and Maria Flores and about 40 other adult classmates are learning English with the help of a Temple Independent School District program that allows district parents, as well as highly gifted elementary school students, the use of Rosetta Stone, a self-paced language software.

For Miguel Flores, the program has put him in a classroom for the first time ever.

Flores, who along with his cousin is owner of the Tres Magueyes restaurants in Temple, hopes that learning to speak better English will help him communicate with sellers he deals with regularly in his business. He and his wife, Maria, also in the class, believe they can better help their children learn English if they speak it also.

Speaking in halting English, Mr. Flores says he has noticed improvement in his first few weeks in the class.

“My English was not really good, but now I got six weeks to go and my English is much better,” he said. He is in his fourth week of the program, which uses an online version of the language learning software.

Mr. Flores he has owned the restaurants for eight years, and has been in the United States for 16 years, and was quick to speak of his lack of schooling.

“This is my first time for school,” he said. “My English is for talking with my friends, with my neighbors.”

Mrs. Flores, speaking through a translator, said she wants to be able to speak English when she goes out around town.

“When I go to the stores or go to the schools I feel I need to know English to be able to communicate,” she said.

She said she also believes she can help her children in school if she has a better grasp of the language.

“It will help, to be able to talk to them and to do their homework,” she said.

Now speaking through a translator, Mr. Flores adds, “At the end of the session I would like to have a celebration at my restaurant and invite everyone so we can all talk about what we learned…”

Consuela Sisneros, bilingual ESL facilitator for the Temple district, said the adult program began in the fall and is free to parents.

“The primary focus of the program was to help the bilingual students learn English and the students at a bilingual school to learn Spanish or another language of their preference,” she said.

In the current session, more than 40 parents have been attending classes, which are run by two teachers and two district employees handling child care duties. The classes and the child care services are free.

Ms. Sisneros said the classes are self-paced.

“They start out learning basic vocabulary words; from that they go into more of a grammatical structure of the English language,” she said.

Gifted students

Karen A. Morgan, director of special programs, said that while the mostly Hispanic-speaking adults are learning English with the software, EXCELL students at Western Hills Elementary School are using the same program to learn a non-English language.

The EXCELL program (Excellence in Education for Lifelong Learners), is designed for highly gifted students, Ms. Morgan said.

“They have chosen languages from French to German to Hebrew to Greek,” she said.

“Most of the students chose a language based on their future career goals,” she said, adding that the EXCELL students are not too young to be concerned about careers.

Temple ISD serves more than 600 second-language learners in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, according to the district. Bilingual programs are available at Bethune and Dickson Early Childhood Centers, and Cater and Hector P. Garcia elementaries for qualifying students whose first language is Spanish.

English as a second language program services are available at all campuses, according to the district.

The Rosetta Stone English classes for parents will continue through May 14. For more information, contact the Temple ISD Office of Special Programs.