English as a Second Language

 

The objective of this course is to prepare students for smooth mainstreaming into traditional education and to meet survival requirements in the home, work place and community.

Courses are designed to provide English language instruction to students whose native language is not English. The appropriate combination of speech and English instruction is determined individually according to the student's existing English language skills as determined by an initial academic placement test and interview.

The curriculum includes regular grammar, conversation and pronunciation group sessions according to level in a traditional classroom setting with emphasis on pre-employment skills (PES).

For enrollment or any other inquiries, contact Reynaldo Leal or Wendy Lopez at 305-871-2808 ext. 118 or 119. You can also e-mail wlopez@advancedtechnicalcenters.com

Program Description

ESL1
Concentrates on mastery of the essential building blocks for learning English. The student will be able to name, write, and discriminate capital and small letters and numbers through thousands. Discriminate and pronounce initial and final consonant blends, diphthongs, digraphs, and vowel combinations.

Concentrates on mastery of the essential building blocks for learning the English required for coping in everyday life--reading readiness, supplying personal information, and recognizing important signs and symbols. The student will be able to visually discriminate shapes and letters; master spatial relationships, and progressions; respond to personal questions asked on forms, and recognize signs and symbols used in everyday living.

ESL2
Emphasizes fundamental listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills that are required for further English language learning. The student will be able to understand, speak, and write the present, progressive, and simple past tenses of the verb "to be", and other verbs with simple nouns and pronouns; affirmative and negative statements; and information questions with short answers.

Emphasizes fundamental survival skills that are critical for meeting basic needs in daily life--reading, telling time, using community services and public transportation, seeing a doctor, finding a job. The student will be able to visually discriminate letters, read calendars and tell time, use community services and maps, understand medical terms and behaviors, and master the names of different job opportunity and responsibilities.

ESL3
Extends and expands the student's aural, verbal, grammatical, reading, and pronunciation skills, providing a sound cognitive framework to support more independent English language learning. The student will be able to understand, speak, and write the present, progressive, and past tenses of additional regular and irregular verbs, and the future tense with "going to," prepositions and prepositional phrases; time, date, and weather expressions, social greetings in the evening and on formal occasions.

These competencies extend the student's fundamental skills through more in-depth applications of those skills and expand the student's practical knowledge of the English language to additional functional areas. The student will be able to demonstrate oral language patterns and vocabulary required in real-life situations. Develops listening and speaking skills required for effective communication in these areas: identification, food and money, health care, transportation, housing, clothing and fabrics, looking for a job, and community resources.

ESL4
Strengthens the student's command of the English language by reinforcing listening, speaking, and pronunciation skills and relating new grammatical and reading skills to those already taught and mastered. The student will be able to understand, speak, a and write statements, questions, and dialogues about family relationships, sequence, and chronology, including future tense of the verb "to be" with "going to;" regular and irregular verbs in relation to simple pronouns; affirmative and negative responses to "why/because" questions.

Strengthens the student's command of the English language and practical knowledge in the Level 3 functional areas, moving from relatively simple applications to more realistic and complex ones that more closely correspond to real world demands. The student will be able to reinforce and expand mastery of the basic concepts, vocabulary, and structures of the English language and communications skills required for functional adequacy in those areas.