English as a Second Language (ESL)

ESL 010. Intermediate ESL for Academic Success. 3 Credits.

ESL 010 is the first course in a four part series of required ESL courses that support the completion of the Certificate in a designated content area for the Dual-Language (English-Spanish) Program. ESL 010 will engage students with authentic academic content, fostering clear connections between reading, writing, listening, and public speaking skills at the intermediate level of English language learning. Students will work with a variety of realistic academic texts, in conjunction with their academic subject courses, including content related to their field of study. Step-by-step reading and writing instruction with integrated grammar and vocabulary at the intermediate level will provide the necessary preparation for future ESL courses and academic content courses. Critical thinking and writing assignments will serve to develop students’ ability to evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information in English from a range of sources. ESL 010 will prepare students to advance to the next ESL course level in the series, in conjunction with the academic content classes needed for the completion of the Certificate. Prerequisites: Placement.

ESL 020. High Intermediate ESL for Academic Success. 3 Credits.

ESL 020 is the second course in a four part series of required ESL courses that support the completion of the Certificate in a designated content area for the Dual-Language (English-Spanish) Immersion Program. ESL 020 will engage students with authentic academic content, fostering clear connections between reading, writing, listening, and public speaking skills at the high intermediate level of English language learning. Students will work with a variety of realistic academic texts, in conjunction with their academic subject courses, including content related to their field of study. Step-by-step reading and writing instruction with integrated grammar and vocabulary at the high intermediate level will provide the necessary preparation for the last two ESL courses and academic content courses. Critical thinking and writing assignments will serve to develop students’ ability to evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information in English from a range of sources. ESL 020 will prepare students to advance to the third ESL course in the series in conjunction with the academic content classes needed for the completion of the Certificate. Prerequisites: ESL 010.

ESL 030. Advanced ESL for Academic Success. 3 Credits.

ESL 030 is the third course in a four part series of required ESL courses that support the completion of the Certificate in a designated content area for the Dual-Language (English-Spanish) Immersion Program. ESL 030 will engage students with authentic academic content, fostering clear connections between reading, writing, listening, and public speaking skills at the advanced level of English language learning. Students will work with a variety of realistic academic texts, in conjunction with their academic subject courses, including content related to their field of study. Step-by-step reading and writing instruction with integrated grammar and vocabulary at the advanced level will provide the necessary preparation for the last ESL course and academic content courses. Critical thinking and writing assignments will serve to develop students’ ability to evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information in English from a range of sources. ESL 030 will prepare students to advance to the fourth ESL course in the series in conjunction with the academic content classes needed for the completion of the Certificate. Prerequisites: ESL 020 or placement.

ESL 081. Academic Listening and Speaking for English Language Learners I. 3 Credits.

This course is designed for academically oriented and non-native English speaking and bilingual students who have reached an advanced beginning level and who wish to improve confidence and develop proficiency in speaking and listening to succeed in an academic context. Informed by language skills and critical thinking, students will develop communication, organization, pronunciation and listening skills necessary for effective academic presentations which, in turn, further enhances students’ opportunities to develop language skills by inferring speaker’s attitude, interrupting, identifying key information in an argument, agreeing and disagreeing, degrees of formalities, selecting information for notes and summaries and formulating a debate. In addition, dialogues, role plays, discussions, and oral presentations will actively engage students in meaningful conversations as well as provide opportunities for language skill development including – but not limited to: idioms and vocabulary, real-world use of grammar to help learners communicate confidently; sentence structure in different contexts and ample communicative examples at the intermediate level, e.g. use of present perfect tenses, simple past, and past progressive. A grade of C or better is required to pass the course. Prerequisites: Placement.

ESL 082. Academic Reading and Writing for English Language Learners I. 3 Credits.

This course is designed for non-native English-speaking and bilingual students who have reached an advanced beginning level and who wish to improve their skills. Specific areas of focus are building confidence and further develop proficiency in reading fluency, academic vocabulary, expansion of reading skills including skimming, scanning, making inferences, outlining the ideas in writing summaries as well as an introduction to recognizing patterns of organization. Reading comprehension proficiency will be achieved through utilizing high interest materials, textbooks, and other resources such as websites, magazines, and newspapers. Concomitantly, this is an intermediate writing course in which students more fully develop their ability to write essays as the course focuses on the skills needed to write grammatically correct simple, compound and complex sentences. Hence, pertinent emphasis will also be given to present perfect and past perfect tenses, modal verbs, passive voice, gerunds, infinitives, and prepositions. Students will brainstorm, organize, write, revise, and edit short guided essays using topic sentences with supporting details and organized paragraphs with clear introductions and conclusions. Students will continue learning and correctly using punctuation rules and developing proofreading and copyediting skills. A grade of C or better is required to pass the course. Prerequisites: Placement.

ESL 083. Academic Listening and Speaking for English Language Learners II. 3 Credits.

This Advanced Listening and Speaking Course is the final ESOL level designed to fully prepare Non-Native Speakers of English and bilingual students for college-level courses. The course is intended for students who have mastered an intermediate level of proficiency in English grammar structures and aural/oral communication. The course includes mastery in listening and speaking skills including pronunciation, intonation, correct grouping of vocabulary items in phrases, academic vocabulary development and an introduction to note-taking skills. Students will develop their speaking skills including asking for clarification, requesting and receiving factual information, expressing agreement and disagreement and adjusting to different levels of formality. Students will research a topic of their choice and present their findings using appropriate technology. Concurrently, this course also focuses on the use of English grammar structure in college-level reading, writing and communication. Structures emphasized include adjective clauses and descriptive phrases, gerunds and infinitives, adverbial clauses and phrases, sentence connectors, noun clauses, active/passive voice, several verb tenses, modals and modal-like expressions, conditionals, the subjunctive and unreal conditions which will ultimately help students improve their ability to interpret what they read and express themselves accurately orally and in writing. A grade of C or better is required to pass this course. Prerequisites: Placement.

ESL 084. Academic Reading and Writing for English Language Learners II. 3 Credits.

This is the final ESOL Reading and Writing Course designed to fully prepare Non-Native Speakers of English and bilingual students for college-level courses. It is intended for those who have mastered an intermediate level of English. Students will develop the skills to write unified and coherent paragraphs and to write cohesive essays with thesis statements, introductions, and conclusions using a variety of rhetorical skills, conjunctions and transitions at both the sentence and paragraph levels. Moreover, this course includes further acquisition of academic vocabulary using context and textual clues, identifying main ideas and supporting details, skimming for main ideas, scanning for specific information, making inferences, previewing and predicting, reading critically, distinguishing facts from opinions and interpreting graphs and charts. Concomitantly, this course offers a comprehensive review of structures such as perfect tenses, passive voice, compound and complex sentences including adjective, adverb and noun clauses, modal perfects, conditional, unreal conditionals and subjunctives through extensive communicative language practice. A grade of C or better is required to pass the course. Prerequisites: Placement.

ESL 099. Transitional ESL for Academic Success in College Writing. 3 Credits.

ESL 099 is the final course in a four-part series of required ESL courses that support the completion of the Certificate in a designated content area for the Dual-Language (English-Spanish) Immersion Program. ESL 099 is a co-requisite of ENG 101- College Writing. Students will work with authentic academic content, fostering clear connections between reading, writing, listening and public speaking skills at the advanced level of English language learning, with the main focus on writing. Students will use realistic academic texts to write college essays, in conjunction with their academic subject courses and ENG 101. Writing instruction with integrated grammar and vocabulary at the advanced level of English will provide the necessary preparation for college level writing. Critical thinking and writing assignments will serve to develop students’ ability to research, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information in the English language for their field of study and career major. ESL 099 will help to prepare students for the completion of their Certificate and enable them to transition to future college level courses, in pursuit of an Associate’s degree and beyond. Prerequisite: ESL 080 or placement; ENG 101 as corequisite.