General Statement of Purpose or Goal: The mission of the ESL program for adults is to equip students with the language and cultural proficiencies required for the eventual fulfillment of personal, vocational, academic, and citizenship goals so that they may participate fully in American society.  The instruction of the ESL program is communication-based.  Students are engaged in purposeful use of the language rather than learning about the language so that they can use the skills gained to achieve basic life needs; enhance employment and career opportunities; pursue further academic studies; and increase their ability to function in English at higher cognitive levels.  Such results can further student’s self-worth and help them contribute to their communities.

Program Objectives

•To provide learning environments that foster low anxiety levels, thus enhancing the development of language fluency and self-esteem of the learners.

•To integrate language acquisition with relevant life experiences stressing the importance of critical thinking, problem solving, and self-sufficiency.

•To use language proficiency levels for assessing the major accomplishments of the students.

•To develop students’ receptive English-language skills of listening and reading comprehension.

•To develop students’ productive English-language skills of speaking and writing.

•To provide speakers with the ability to use accurate and appropriate English in a variety of settings.

Curriculum/Instructional Objectives

•To focus on meeting students’ needs as determined by assessment of their language proficiencies, goals and interests.

•To integrate language components – vocabulary, grammar, language functions, pronunciations – in units of topics that are important to the students.

•To integrate the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) to emphasize the holistic nature of language.

•To focus on the acquisition of communication skills for real-life situations.

•To develop receptive skills (listening & reading) before productive skills (speaking & writing).

•To facilitate student-centered instruction through use of a variety of grouping strategies and a variety of activities that address different learning styles (aural, oral, visual, kinesthetic).

Evaluation

•Students will be deemed successful when they accurately complete 80% of the activities / tasks as listed with each language objective, with 80% accuracy.

Repetition Policy