Spring 2024
Whether you need to improve your English for professional, educational or personal reasons, the Community ESL Program at Queensborough Community College has the right class for you. We offer six levels from Basic Beginners to Advanced. Classes are taught by a highly experienced team of instructors eager to have you improve your English skills. Classes are held in classrooms equipped with state of the art technology. In order for us to place you in the proper level, we will ask you to register, pay the tuition take a short placement test. More information with be provided regarding the placement test that will be scheduled a few days prior to the start of the class.
The English as a Second Language program offers six levels of instruction:
Placement Test for ESL Classes
In-Person
Date/Time: TBD
Price: FREE with registration and full payment for Community ESL class
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ESL Course Descriptions
Students in the Basic English Foundation level will learn to introduce themselves by exchanging greetings and communicating with peers using basic phrases and expressions, describing familiar places and completing simple forms. Students will learn to ask and answer questions about personal details. Writing will include practicing basic sentences in the present tense with an emphasis on spelling and pronunciation. Reading will focus on understanding limited dialogues and asking and answering simple questions.
Class Schedule: Monday and Wednesday, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (40 hours of instruction)
Start Date: February 14, 2024-End Date: May 6, 2024
The Beginner class is designed to give students the ability to narrate and inquire about the world around them. Students will work on their basic command of the English language by covering everyday-life events. They will learn to master basic sentence structures using simple tenses, present, past and future in the affirmative and interrogative forms while working toward adding more complex sentences sentences. Reading skills will include identifying the topic and the main ideas, scanning for specific information and summarizing. Speaking skills will incorporate asking and answering questions and participating in role-plays and short discussions on topics related to daily situations such as asking for information and directions, comparing holidays, looking for work and preparing for job interviews. Vocabulary will include words and idiomatic expressions relevant to each topic.
Class Schedule: Monday and Wednesday, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (40 hours of instruction)
Start Date: February 14, 2024-End Date: May 6, 2024
Pre-Intermediate students will discuss future plans, habits and routines and learn to summarize and make inferences and predictions on a variety of topics through interactive readings. They will also express agreement or disagreement with an emphasis on emotions, experiences and feelings. Students will write simple stories and link sentences using connectors such as basic subordinations and coordinations. Students will start writing outlines and simple paragraphs. The emphasis is on social communication both face to face or through social media.
Class Schedule: Monday and Wednesday, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (40 hours of instruction)
Start Date: February 14, 2024-End Date: May 6, 2024
Students in the intermediate level will continue to improve their fluency in the English language with the emphasis on speaking, listening, reading and writing. Students will participate in group discussions, role-plays and in-class presentations on a wide range of topics from different media such as newspaper articles, short stories, videos and songs. The emphasis will be on exchanging ideas and expressing opinions. Reading and writing skills will focus on making inferences, developing critical thinking, organizing information and writing short paragraphs. Grammar will focus on more complex sentence structures with compound words, simple and perfect tenses and proper spelling while increasing vocabulary through reading materials from the assigned textbook.
Class Schedule: Monday and Wednesday, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (40 hours of instruction)
Start Date: February 14, 2024-End Date: May 6, 2024
The Upper Intermediate class is designed to increase the student confidence in the language by focusing on all skills; speaking, listening, reading and writing. Students will explore concrete and abstract topics and develop language flexibility for social, academic and professional needs by getting involved in group discussions, giving presentations and practicing writing with at least two types of essays.. Students will also work toward mastering advanced grammar and syntax by expressing ideas using a wide variety of connectors for more complex sentences
Class Schedule: Monday and Wednesday, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (40 hours of instruction)
Start Date: February 14, 2024-End Date: May 6, 2024
The advanced course is designed to give the opportunity to students who completed the previous five levels to continue improving their fluency in the English language with an emphasis on speaking and writing. Students will participate in group discussions and oral presentations on a variety of current events and topics. These activities will give the students the chance to improve confidence in expressing themselves utilizing proper documentation, targeted vocabulary and advanced grammar to convince an audience. Writing skills will expand beyond the short essay with the production of complex papers using multiple transition signals and more complex sentences. Students will also learn to organize their thoughts using an outline and do research on the internet to support their topic development.
Class Schedule: Monday and Wednesday, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (40 hours of instruction)
Start Date: February 14, 2024-End Date: May 6, 2024
Testimonials
"My name is Tania Montesdeoca. I’m from the city of Cuenca in Ecuador. I came to the US to find better study opportunities and a better quality of life. Well, what Mr. Prato teaches us is helpful and in particular for me when he asks me a question, and I answer wrong. He makes me repeat correctly regardless of how many times I have to do it. He is a really good teacher. Mr. Prato is a terrific teacher. He always has the energy that transmits to the class. In addition, his learning topics are very helpful to improve English as a second language."
-Tania Montesdeoca
"For the past few months I have been enrolled in a life changing program that has impacted and altered the course of my pandemic and has given me an opportunity to advance academically. I would like to give a special thank you to both of my professors, Sean Rivera and Nataliya Matsay dedicated, enlightened and professional mentors who are patient and understanding with students’ needs and learning curves. I greatly appreciate each time and efforts of both individuals. Throughout this program I have advanced in knowledge and I am ready to take on my TASC test, and a special THANK YOU to Abel Hassan, ESL/HSE Coordinator for providing me with all of the information and insight in regards to obtaining my HSE diploma. I highly recommend enrolling in this course as it has guided and prepared me towards a huge milestone in my education and life. Thank you!"
-Ashley Chiswick
"My name is Yonglin Cheng. I came to the USA because my husband works here. The activities that I like are speaking, writing and listening. They are very helpful for me to improve my English skills. The ESL class is wonderful, and the class time is perfect for me. The teacher is very nice and he’s very smart. I can learn lots of new vocabulary, practice writing, listening and speaking skills in every lesson. It helps me a lot. I will recommend this class to my friends who want to improve their English skills."
-Yonglin ChengContact Us:
T: (718) 281-5460
Email: CLIP@qcc.cuny.edu
Email: QCCContinuingEd@qcc.cuny.edu
