ESL classes sharpen skills, build community

It’s the perfect educational equation: Student teachers needing to teach English, plus people needing to learn it.

In fact, this is the formula for the English as a Second Language (ESL) Program‘s free classes for members of the campus community. According to course coordinator Lucy Moore, classes are offered to any adult non-student member of the university community: visiting scholars, spouses and other family members, and other non-native English speakers interested in improving their skills.

“These classes offer the ‘extended family’ of the UW–Madison student body an opportunity to get some training in the university setting,” Moore says. “It also offers them a way to meet others in the same situation and to spend some time in a classroom setting.”

It’s a good arrangement for the student teachers, too. Moore says that they need to complete a certain number of hours of teaching as part of the UW–Madison’s teaching practicum.

“For students who already have had some teaching experience, these classes are an opportunity to be the primary teachers of their own class, under the direct supervision of a faculty member,” she says.

Moore says that this semester, most of the language students are Chinese speakers, with some speakers of Korean and Spanish as well. “Most of them rank themselves as intermediate English speakers, so they’re not absolute beginners,” she says.

Classes will be held on campus and will begin the week of Feb. 7, continuing through April. The enrollment deadline is Monday, Jan. 31. Application forms are available in the ESL office, 5134 Helen C. White Hall or by e-mail at kmmyhre@wisc.edu.