ESL Program - English as a Second Language Program

Nawa Academy has a commitment to educating its students to become participants in a fully global society, and fosters a residential school environment where non-native English speakers are integrated with native English speakers. This multi-cultural environment provides all our students with many opportunities for mutual growth, understanding and tolerance.

Students may enter the ESL Program at any point during the school year. Upon registration, students take the College Board's ACCUPLACER ESL test which determines their level of English competence and ascertains if they are capable of registering for core academic high school courses. As there are four academic blocks in the school year, students may test into mainstream classes at the start of each academic block. Students whose English competency is not at a level sufficient for transfer into mainstream classes remain in the ESL program until the next testing date.

In addition to the four academic blocks of the school year, the ESL Program has a summer school component. This occurs for six weeks immediately prior to the start of the school year. This is strongly recommended for students who wish to enroll for the school year as it may allow them to gain the language skills that are necessary for immediate inclusion in mainstream classes at the start of the school year.

ESL Course Overview

Nawa's ESL course incorporates small classes with personalized instruction from certified teachers. Lessons are carefully structured and emphasize all English communication skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

The speech and pronunciation portion of the course provides an interactive approach to the phonetics and intonation of the English language. The student practices the phonics and intonation in essential daily speech patterns to improve their speaking skills and has interactive listening assignments to improve their listening skills. As students progress, pronunciation difficulties are addressed as well as their use of idiomatic English. Finally, students focus on the organization and presentation of formal reports. Academic language in class discussions is emphasized, and note-taking strategies are practiced to help the student prepare for successfully transfer into fully accredited high school classes.

Students with a limited reading knowledge of English are introduced to basic phonics, vocabulary development and pre-reading strategies such as topic sentence and main idea to increase reading comprehension. Students are also challenged to speak and write about topics addressed in the class reading. As students improve their knowledge and understanding they increase their reading comprehension with more intermediate vocabulary development, word and dictionary usage, structural analysis and additional pre-reading and reading strategies such as author's purpose and supporting details, and outlines and inferences.

Written English is introduced to students through learning elementary grammar and the development of basic paragraph writing skills through speaking and writing activities. As their skill level improves, students are introduced to the organization and development of the basic five-paragraph essay. Finally, students are introduced to advanced grammar concepts and the refinement of longer essays in final preparation for full high school courses.