Photographed above: Student Michael Villasenor from Mexico; student Manuela Candela from Columbia, and Marit. Michael and Manuela began as level 1 and 3 ESL students, respectively. They both completed the ESL program last spring and are excelling in English 110 for Multilingual Students.

SBCC transfer-level ESL program featured

in CAPacity Gazette

ESL instructor Marit Ter Mate-Martinsen’s innovative English 110 program for mulilingual students was focused in a recent issue of the prestigious CAPacity Gazette (page 9). Says Marit, who has been teaching the course for four years, “Our AB705 guidance was to explore offering a transfer level English course in ESL or for an ESL instructor (who meets minimum qualifications to teach in ESL and English) to teach transfer level English to multilingual students, so I proposed this course during the height of the pandemic as we were rolling out our newly developed AB705 compliant ESL curriculum.

"We were in danger of losing our ESL students (completing the ESL sequence) without a super-supported English 110 section in place.”

Last spring, a team of ESL California community college instructors, including Marit, released the book "Reading, Writing, Research, and Reasoning: An Advanced ESL Text” for advanced level ESL students. It was shared at an ASCCC OERI webinar last spring. You can find the book here.