ESL General Information

General Information

History

The Delgado Community College ESL program, the oldest and largest in the New Orleans area, began in 1969 with 1 class of 24 students. Since then it has grown steadily, both in student enrollment and course offerings. Presently, we serve approximately 300 students per semester with 25 courses at all levels of English proficiency.

Program Structure

Delgado Community College is on a semester system. The Fall semester is from August to December. The Spring semester runs from January to May. The intensive 8-week Summer term takes place in June and July. We offer a full schedule of day and evening sections during the Fall and Spring semesters, and a reduced schedule during the Summer term.

The core program consists of 6 proficiency levels (Basic 1, Basic 2, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, Advanced 1, and Advanced 2) in each of 4 language skills (Reading, Writing, Conversation, and Grammar). Students may place into different levels in different skills as determined by the ESL placement test. All classes use a theme-based curriculum. Also, while each course focuses on 1 language skill, complementary skills are routinely integrated into class activities and student assignments to enhance students' overall language development. Besides the core curriculum, we also offer a course in TOEFL test preparation.

The ESL program has a multimedia classroom/lab dedicated to the development of listening and speaking skills. Interactive software helps students to improve their listening comprehension, conversational fluency, accuracy of pronunciation, and intonation. Composition, reading, and grammar labs within the Division of Liberal Arts are also available for use by ESL students.

Student Demographics

In a typical semester, our student body includes representatives from over 40 countries. Many of our students come to us to establish a foundation in English so that they can function at a higher level in their jobs or in the community, but a majority expect to pursue Associate Degree majors at the College, or to transfer to four-year institutions for Bachelor or Masters degrees (Delgado maintains articulation agreements with all of the four-year colleges and universities in New Orleans).

Faculty

All ESL classes at Delgado are taught by qualified ESL professionals. The full-time faculty hold master's or doctoral degrees, and have extensive experience in ESL. The adjunct faculty also have master's degrees and/or extensive ESL classroom experience.

If you would like us to mail you application materials and ESL program information, please fill out the ESL information request form .

ESL GENERAL INFORMATION