Esl School 10 163 Ns - article by Whimsical Wire Articles

Each year, thousands of foreign-born students enroll in degree programs at American colleges and universities. Some do so for the career opportunities that will open up to them once they complete their degrees, while others do so simply for the chance to experience life in the United States for a few years. Regardless of the specific reason you want to study in America, you'll most likely have to demonstrate a basic level of English language proficiency (as measured by your TOEFL scores) in order to be able to enroll in an American university. If you don't think your English skills are good enough to get the TOEFL scores that you need, you might want to consider studying at an ESL school first.

There are a great many ESL schools in the U.S. for you to choose from, and all of them obviously cater to those students learning English as a Second Language. However, that's just about the only thing that all the schools have in common. All of the other details, including tuition, courses offered, length of study, and living arrangements, differ from institution to institution. That means you're going to have to do a lot of research in order to find an ESL school that sounds right for you.

Though your individual circumstances might vary, here are a few general points to keep in mind while searching for an ESL school. First, check out the qualifications of the instructors. At a minimum, the instructors should possess Bachelor's degrees in a related field such as linguistics. In addition, the instructors should have at least a few months of overseas teaching experience. That way you'll know they have some idea of what other cultures are like and will be able to help you with more than just pure language instruction.

A second thing you should do is look for an ESL school in the city where your future university is located. For example, if your dream is to attend the University of Wisconsin at some point, then you should look for an ESL school in the city of Madison. By doing this, you'll get a realistic preview of what university life will be like. You'll also be able to attend campus events and meet current university students, which will make your transition to full-time student status a lot easier.

Finally, you should look at the ethnic composition of the students at the ESL school in order to make sure that there are neither too many nor too few students from your home country. The purpose of attending an ESL school is of course to improve your English. So if there are too many students from your own country, then you'll have too many temptations to speak in your native language outside of class. At the same time, however, if there are too few students from your country, then you might get homesick and not be able to continue studying. The ideal ESL school will have a good mix of students from many different countries so that you'll be forced to communicate in English as much as possible, but will always have a chance to speak with people from your home country whenever you need to.

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