English for Speakers of Other Languages

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RIRC offers:

Semi intensive evening and weekend English language classes to enable the customers to communicate in the English language in one or more of the following manners: reading, writing, and speech
Topical cultural classes to help you learn more about New York City and the United States.
US Citizenship exam. One in three New Yorkers are immigrants, many of whom face challenges in securing jobs or succeeding in school due to limited English proficiency. To succeed and contribute to community life in New York, the ability to communicate effectively is essential
A multimedia resource center includes books, cassettes and CD-ROMs that enhance the interactive learning and development of your English language skills. Students can use the center’s audio, video, electronic and computer equipment during school hours
Classes begin September and January Monday to Friday from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM and Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Spacious, modern facilities available for language activities

Curriculum

Our emphasis in RIRC’s program is on developing oral fluency which prepares clients for a brighter future and a better work life. To better meet our clients’ diverse needs, RIRC has developed its own curriculum materials. The program consists of two phases of studies.

Part One: Structures and Verbs
Part Two: Vocabulary
Part Three: Idioms and Dialogues
Part Four: Listening Comprehension Skills

PHASE I

The courses in Phase I Program are designed to students to communicate in the real world.

Survival English I

The RIRC English System is a universal program for Speakers of Other Languages who wants to learn practical English. RIRC encourages students to think in English, lose their fear of the language, maintain high motivation, build up their fluency and improve their pronunciation. This introductory course focuses primarily on listening and speaking skills and one-to-one conversations. Students are required to bring a blank audio cassette tape to this course, which focuses primarily on listening and speaking. The objectives of this course are to reinforce communication skills while emphasizing pronunciation. The course covers the pronunciation of vowels, consonants and written words. By the end of the course, students should be more aware of their own pronunciation, recognize sounds in the spoken language, spell with greater ease and speak more clearly.

Intermediate I

This course advances students’ written and conversational skills to a higher level of proficiency. Students will learn to use future, present progressive, past progressive, modals, comparatives and superlatives in their conversations. The course focuses on listening, speaking, reading and writing. The objective of this course is to develop and improve listening comprehension, develop listening strategies, and expose students to native speakers discussing various topics. Students will summarize main ideas; make inferences; listen for reduction and intonation; listen for special utterances such as repetition, hesitation, and tone of voice; and listen for background noise. By the end of this course, students should be able to refine their listening skills, distinguish different sounds, and understand various spoken topics with greater ease than ever before.

Advanced /CIVIC

The objectives of the class include refining and improving conversational skills and reinforcing structures presented in earlier courses. Students who take this course should already have a strong grammar background and the ability to communicate and express themselves well. This advanced class uses the passive voice and direct and indirect speech. Writing assignments include news reporting and dictation. Also, this class prepares immigrants to pass the U.S. Citizenship exam and become active citizens. In addition to learning phone use for business and social purposes, students will learn to understand and express the following language functions in everyday situations: greeting and introducing people; making small talk; ending a conversation; asking for information; giving direction and instruction; giving thanks; extending, accepting, and declining invitations; hesitation strategies; making requests; and apologizing and responding. By the end of this course, students should be able to handle different situations encountered in real life and clearly understand the spoken language in a given situation.

PHASE II

Our emphasis with the Phase II Program is to prepare our students for the real world. Students who enter Phase II Program should already have good communication skills in order to be accepted.

Survival English II

This course continues to increase students’ fluency in English, build up their writing skills and reading comprehension, as well as help them become adept at spelling. It introduces she/he conversation and focuses on listening, speaking, reading and writing. Its objectives are to increase vocabulary knowledge, interpret meanings and stimulate discussions. By the end of the course, students should be able to guess word meaning from context, skim material and infer and interpret written materials.

Intermediate II

This course helps to keep students’’ motivation high in the learning process while building their fluency and increasing their vocabulary. Students’’ conversations will use present perfect and past perfect tenses. They will also be encouraged to use a dictionary to increase their vocabulary. The objectives of this course are to develop and improve listening comprehension, cultivate note-taking and summarizing skills, increase students’ vocabulary, stimulate conversation, and encourage students to listen to the radio and television. By the end of this course, students should be able to take notes in class and understand various topics with ease.

RIRC, Inc.