This Beginning English Language Acquisition (ELA) course is designed for students whose first language is not English. Participants work to strengthen their skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, math, digital literacy, and employability skills. Instruction emphasizes practical communication, employability, and academic readiness, with a focus on targeted practice in conversation, presentations, pronunciation, vocabulary development, reading comprehension, and writing. By the end of the course, students will demonstrate increased fluency and confidence using English in diverse settings, including the workplace, higher education, the home, and the community. Special enrollment requirements may apply. Students must be at least sixteen years old to enroll in the BEdA program. This course may be repeated.
Prerequisites
This course is designed for students with a CASAS score below 196 in reading and/or below 191 in listening.
Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to demonstrate the following knowledge or skills:
- Students will identify and respond to basic personal information questions (e.g., name, address, phone number) orally and in writing with 80% accuracy. Aligned with CCRS ELP Standard 1: Construct meaning from oral presentations and literary and informational text through level-appropriate listening, reading, and viewing.
- Students will use simple present tense verbs to describe daily routines in 4–6 complete sentences with correct subject-verb agreement in 4 out of 5 writing tasks. Aligned with CCRS ELP Standard 2: Participate in level-appropriate oral and written exchanges of information, ideas, and analyses.
- Students will read and comprehend short paragraphs (50–100 words) on familiar topics and answer 4 out of 5 comprehension questions correctly. Aligned with CCRS ELP Standard 3: Speak and write about level-appropriate complex literary and informational texts and topics.
- Students will demonstrate understanding of basic vocabulary (e.g., food, family, weather) by correctly matching 15 out of 20 words to images or definitions. Aligned with CCRS ELP Standard 4: Construct level-appropriate oral and written claims and support them with reasoning and evidence.
- Students will follow 3-step oral or written instructions (e.g., classroom tasks, safety procedures) and complete the task with 90% accuracy. Aligned with CCRS ELP Standard 7: Adapt language choices to purpose, task, and audience when speaking and writing.
- Students will solve fundamental math problems involving time, money, and simple operations (e.g., addition, subtraction) in familiar contexts such as shopping or scheduling, with 80% accuracy on 5 out of 6 tasks. Aligned with CCRS ELP Standard 6: Analyze and compare information and arguments in level-appropriate texts.
1. Students will be able to communicate clearly and effectively.
2. Students will be able to reason mathematically.
5. Students will be able to demonstrate teamwork, ethics, appropriate safety awareness, and/or workplace-specific skills.
Instruction will emphasize strategies using increasingly complex texts chosen to match students’ interests, personal pathways, and educational plans. Lessons will build the skills needed to complete HS+ coursework and introduce BBCC’s Six Areas of Interest. Students will develop reading, writing, speaking, listening, language, mathematical, and digital literacy skills through integrated academic and real-life tasks.