The TALC ESL Speaks Competition was created to build bridges and meaningful connections across Adult Day Schools and related programs while ensuring an equitable and affirming space for adult ESL learners.

Adult ESL students bring life experiences that differ significantly from those of younger learners. Many have spent years navigating work, family responsibilities, migration, displacement, and community life. These experiences often translate into strong storytelling abilities, confidence, and oral expression in their home languages, which in turn influence how they communicate in English.

For this reason, TALC ESL Speaks provides a competition specifically designed for adult learners, where students are evaluated alongside peers who share similar life stages and experiences. Competing within an adult-only space ensures that students are assessed fairly and meaningfully, without direct comparison to much younger participants whose developmental, social, and educational contexts are different.

This approach supports equity by:

• recognizing the unique strengths adult learners bring

• honouring lived experience as a form of knowledge

• creating fair conditions for evaluation and growth

Beyond competition, TALC ESL Speaks is designed as a structured learning experience that can be integrated as a standard instructional unit across all ESL courses.

Through guided speech writing, rehearsal, and presentation, students develop skills that directly support success in ESL and other subject areas. This unit helps students:

• strengthen English speaking, listening, and oral communication skills

• build confidence in formal and informal public speaking situations

• develop storytelling, organization, and reflective writing abilities

• practice presenting ideas clearly to an audience

• share lived experiences in a respectful and supportive environment
  
  

The skills developed through TALC ESL Speaks align with expectations across adult education courses, including:

• oral presentations

• classroom discussions

• reflective and narrative writing

• critical thinking and self-expression