Welcome to ESL!

What is ESL? 

ESL stands for English as a Second Language.  It includes those students who are educated in a Spanish/English Bilingual setting.  These students are commonly referred to as:

• ELL (English Language Learners) or
• LEP (Limited English Proficient) students.

Southridge educates children with many different home languages.  At this time, approximately 330 of them are learning English as their second language.  The most prevalent first language here is, of course, Spanish, but we also serve students whose first languages include: Farsi, Bengali, Korean, Vietnamese, French, Albanian, Portuguese, German, Urdu and Thai.  ALL of these students have the same challenge; to learn the grade-level content while, at the same time, learning a new language! 

What do we do?

We assist teachers who are not yet ESL certified to modify content for their LEP students.  Our goal is to help teachers make their content comprehensible for their ELLs.  We are also responsible for all the paperwork the district and state require regarding identification, placement and testing of these students.