ESL Services

English Language Learners have very challenging and specific needs. These needs are being met under the direction of the general education teacher with the assistance of our Learning Strategy Teachers (ESL) and Educational Assistant/ESL.

It takes most students 1-3 years to acquire Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and 3-7 years to develop Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). The length it takes students to acquire English varies a great deal. There are many different variables that affect the language acquisition process, including time in school, access to rigorous research-based instruction, background knowledge, years in the country, age/grade, and language level (see below). As students develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, they increase participation in their educational environments. Our goal is to provide our students with the necessary strategies to successfully increase language acquisition.