Experiences of the author while serving as a volunteer teacher at Adelante, a community-action educational program on the West Side of Syracuse, New York, are related. Methods of teaching English as a second language to a class comprised mainly of adults are presented, and the cases of three students are given as examples of ways students may be motivated by the teacher to a greater self-knowledge and to the realization of a new potential. The re-socialization process required by a change in nationality and language cultures is a stage in which the individual should be encouraged to develop psychologically, socially, and economically. (DB)