
The ESL Program at NJIT
Welcome to NJIT's English as a Second Language Program!
Welcome to NJIT's English as a Second Language Program!
The aim of the program is to assist those whose proficiency in English is limited. The program offers a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, which give students practice in listening, speaking, and writing English. The courses also help students get acclimated with the American culture for complete participation in American life.
Undergraduates whose first language is not English and/or whose English proficiency is limited are required to take a special examination in English and enroll for the appropriate course in their first semester. Placement in the appropriate course (ENG 095 or the sequence HUM 099-SL & 100-SL) is based on performance in the examination. Tutoring is a required part of these courses. Students will not be permitted to enroll in cultural history courses until they have achieved satisfactory grades in HUM 099-SL & 100-SL (and ENG 095 if required).
The ESL Program also offers ESL sections of a number of courses in the Humanities Department. These sections carry full academic credit and are designed to help students strengthen their English language proficiency while also mastering course content. Enrollment in ESL sections of these courses is optional.
ESL sections include
Application forms for students applying for undergraduate and graduate studies can be found at http://www.njit.edu/admissions/apply-online.
The English as a Second Language (ESL) Program at NJIT has been awarded two two-year grants (for FY 2002 andd FY 2003) from the Education of Language Minority Students (ELMS) Grants Program , which is funded by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education (CHE) .
The grant project "ESL and Professional Education" will help language minority students strengthen specific communication skills needed for success in their professional fields, by developing ESL sections of several content courses.
Students at New Jersey Institute of Technology need high quantitative and/or technical skills in most courses in their majors. In addition, some of these courses make high-level English demands specific to their fields, beyond the preparation provided by completion of the ESL course sequence, terminating with Freshman Composition. The project "ESL and Professional Education" addresses this situation.
The goal of the project is to strengthen the ability of NJIT language minority undergraduates to deal with the specific language demands in their fields and, beyond that, to prepare them with specific communication skills needed for success in their professional fields. The need for helping students with these language demands is clear from a review of grade records and from comments of academic advisors, alumni and employers. Included in the project are individual components targeted at students in computer science, information systems, engineering technology, and architecture. In addition, there are several components of value to language minority students in all programs.
The grant project, "Wireless World: ESL Computer/Multimedia Learning Environment" ($152,595), was awarded to Nina Pardi, Special Lecturer. This project will use wireless technology to strengthen students' English language skills by bringing wireless computer laptops as a language teaching tool into the classroom in undergraduate ESL courses.
The aim of this grant is to strengthen English skills of language minority students at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) by creating a learning environment that goes beyond the confines of the traditional computer/multimedia lab. This learning environment will be created through wireless technology, which transforms the traditional computer/multimedia lab. The lab itself, seating 20 students and functioning as a classroom as well as a lab, will be located in a large room near the ESL offices and tutoring room. No longer limited to one particular layout by the "nailed in" wiring, furniture, and desktop installations of the traditional lab, this lab will be easy to rearrange to the optimal layout for any language class, group activity, or other use. Aside from extending the physical reach of technology in the ESL Program, Wireless World makes possible the use of computer/multimedia technology throughout the ESL curriculum. This technology is not used only within the ESL course sequence, but also in already existing ESL sections of culture, history, literature, and technical writing. Particular applications include the following:
The technology will also be central to the course to be created in professional oral presentations, ENG340S.
Along with this transformation within the lab/classroom (seating 20 students), the use of wireless technology will open up to computer/multimedia learning a large area beyond the computer lab, comprising the following additional locations: