ESOL

English for Speakers of Other Languages

Program Overview

Charleston County has a wonderfully diverse population of English Language Learners (ELL) students in the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program.  This year over 2000 students from all over the world representing as many as thirty-six different languages were enrolled in 76 CCSD public schools.  Thirty-eight teachers provide services for these students. The students learn the English language through studying not just English, but science, social studies and math. 

We focus on all content areas in the ESOL curriculum. The ESOL staff is as talented and diverse as the student population they serve.  Among the 38 teachers are four teachers who have already achieved national board certification and one more who is anticipating this year's test results. Our fourteen bilingual teachers are an asset to our program and prove to be of tremendous assistance to the families of the many Spanish, French and Portuguese speaking students in the district. 

This dedicated group of teachers works with children in school, at home and even in the summer to ensure that language skills continue to progress and that the lines of communication with parents remain open.  In addition, we offer adult evening classes with child care for parents of our students and focus on establishing and maintaining positive relationships between parents, teachers and all school personnel. 

Best Practices

It is the philosophy of the CCSD ESOL teaching staff that ELL students should learn to communicate in English in  a variety of modes within a wide range of cultural settings or situations.  CCSD is therefore committed to educational excellence and continuous achievement for all English Language Learners and promotes ESOL instruction through content learning.  This empowers students to meet the rigorous demands of the SC curriculum by incorporating sound methodology with a curriculum aligned to the standards to maximize student learning.

The goal of the ESOL program is for students to exit the program at a high proficiency level with the ability to understand and adapt to different cultures and become productive members of society.  The current method of instruction is the pullout model in the elementary and middle schools. Students remain in regular classes for most of the day except for the time period spent with the ESOL teacher. ESOL teachers communicate regularly with classroom teachers to plan, modify instruction, and make the appropriate accommodations for the ELL student. 

At the high school level, students receive classes for credit that count as Carnegie units towards graduation.  The courses are content based and integrate reading, writing, listening, and speaking in a variety of content areas.

Linguistically and culturally diverse students face many challenges everyday in order to achieve.  The role of the ESOL teacher in facilitating this process is a critical one.  The successful ELL student in CCSD will be well prepared to meet the challenges of a changing world.

Rachel Amey
Curriculum Specialist
937-6484; 937-6595 (fax)
rachel_amey@charleston.k12.sc.us

Celina Anthony
Bilingual Coordinator
 937-6394; 937-6595 (fax)
celina_anthony@charleston.k12.sc.us

Christina Vivas
ESOL Parent Advocate
 937-6341; 937-6595 (fax)
christina_vivas@charleston.k12.sc.us