EUGENE, OR – Lane Community College offers English as a Second Language Classes to help students improve their English speaking skills. Students should call now to register for classes that start January 9. Placement testing appointments are still available for the first week of January.
Non-native English speakers in the community take the classes to communicate better at work, get a job, help their children with school, or transition to Lane's college certificate and degree programs.
Carmen Alvarado of Costa Rica started in ESL classes at the pre-beginning level in 2006. "I didn't even know my alphabet!" she said. From that beginning stage, the ESL program helped her gain the skills and confidence she needed to enter Lane's culinary program. "It felt like family," she said of the ESL program. Now she wants to be a chef. "I want to own a restaurant and it will be international cuisine."
Some non-native speakers who are already in the workforce receive help from their employers' who cover the modest cost of ESL classes for their employees, pay for books or arrange their workers' schedules so they can attend class regularly, said Cathy Lindsley, dean of Lane's ESL program. The program enrolls about 500 students per term.
Classes are available in pre-beginning to advanced levels. Daytime classes are taught on main campus, 4000 E. 30th Avenue, Building 11, second floor; and on Monday and Wednesday evenings at the LCC Downtown Center.
ESL students qualify for LTD bus passes.
For more information, call 541-463-5253 days or 541-463-4935 evenings.
Classes start January 9.
Lane is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution. Visit online at www.lanecc.edu or www.twitter.com/lanenews or www.facebook.com/lanecommunitycollege
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Media contact: Joan Aschim, PIO, (541) 463-5591, aschimj@lanecc.edu