ESL Intensive

Kevin Folly-Kossi

ESL Intensive is an English program for foreign students who intend to improve their English skills before they start the regular college programs at Santa Monica College.

I have been in the US since September 2002. It was very helpful for my classmates and I. We went to school from Monday to Friday, four hours a day, and had a writing class and a reading class. In the reading class, we had to read lots of books and the rhythm was fast, our goal was to improve vocabulary and reading comprehension. Most of those books were really interesting and covered a variety of topics that led to discussions and debates among students. The writing class helps students improve their paragraph forming and essay writing skills as well as oral presentations. It’s a good practice, which instructs the student to be very specific, clear and precise.Both classes were very helpful and gave us a good opportunity to improve our English in order to be ready for the regular college program.

ESL intensive English has also been a good cultural experience for us. In fact, students came from different places in the world and shared their experiences relative to their culture and the topics discussed in class. Each student had to describe his or her home country by presenting to the class a specific characteristic of the country. Each of us also had to present a topic relevant to current social and political issues such as elections, the death penalty, abortion and racism. Those presentations were good ways for students to get acquainted with the way of life in their host country, the US. In light of all the positive aspects that I mentioned earlier, I would definitely recommend the ESL intensive program to all international students.

Kevin Folly-Kossi is majoring in Chemistry Engineering at Santa Monica College.