ESL2 Grades 6-8

Students entering this class typically:

• have a developed level of active vocabulary,
• need occasional help in their assignments for other subjects, especially English and humanities,
• have a good command of basic English grammar,
• can contribute to class discussions,
• can write English with clarity and some good degree of sentence complexity.

The course develops ESL students':

• speaking skills beyond conversation, developing ability to relate stories, summarize texts, express opinions, and give speeches,
• listening for specific information, note-taking for speeches,
• reading and research skills, especially reading for information, reading related to specific subject areas,
• reading literature, searching for deeper meaning and abstraction,
• accurate usage of vocabulary according to parts of speech,
• use of the English monolingual dictionary and thesaurus, and
• writing and proof-reading for grammatical accuracy and idiomatic expression of thought.

Course content

• a focus on speaking and writing in accurately and idiomatically, construction of longer reports and essays,
• specific attention to higher level grammatical structures needed to improve accuracy and fluency in writing, e.g. reported speech and conditionals,
• library and internet use to train note-taking skills, preparing written and oral reports, and
• written and oral summaries of challenging reading, comparing and contrasting. 

Students leaving course should be able to:

• express themselves orally in longer sentences, communicating accurately what they want to say,
• contribute actively to what is said in mainstream classes,
• demonstrate independence in completing assignments for mainstream classes,
• exhibit a wide lexical variation, use a monolingual dictionary well, and
• write complete sentences with accurate and idiomatic use of all tenses, with clear competence in complex sentence structures and in linking ideas.