English for Speakers of Other Languages

Free Non-Credit ESOL Classes!

Click Here for Spring 2022 Classes!

New Students:

STEP 1: CLICK HERE Complete the Non-Credit Application. Help Video

STEP 2: You will receive an email with your Student ID number.

STEP 3: Click HERE Make an appointment to get help registering for classes.

Spring 2022 Courses

Reading and Writing 1

ESOL 511 Course #23469

January 24 to May 20, 2022

10:00 – 11:50am

IN-PERSON Tuesdays and Thursdays

CARE Community Center 2325 E 12th St. Oakland 94601

 

 

Bridge to Credit Low Beginning English Courses

Level 1 ESOL 541A
Level 2 ESOL 541B
Level 3 ESOL 541C
Level 4 ESOL 541D

Session 1 – January 24 to March 18, 2022

ESOL 541A Course #22944

Basic English 1

10:00am – 11:50am

Mondays at CARE Community Center

2325 E 12th St. Oakland 94601

Wednesdays: Zoom Online

ESOL 541C Course #22998

Basic English 3

7:00am – 8:30 pm

Monday and Thursday: Zoom Online

 

 

Session 2 – March 21 to May 20, 2022

ESOL 541A Course #22944

Basic English 1

10:00am – 11:50am

Mondays at CARE Community Center

2325 E 12th St. Oakland 94601

Wednesdays: Zoom Online

ESOL 541C Course #22998

Basic English 3

7:00am – 8:30 pm

Monday and Thursday: Zoom Online

 

 

ESOL Childhood Development Courses

ESOL 502 English for Infant/Toddler Development
ESOL 503 English for Infant/Toddler Curriculum
ESOL 504 English for Early Childhood Development
ESOL 505 English for Early Childhood Education Curriculum

Session

Course #22925 CHDEV 504

Introduction to Early Childhood Development

Tuesdays: January 25, February 8, 22, March 8

6:00pm – 8:30pm

CARE Community Center 2325 E 12th St. Oakland 94601

Course #22941 ESOL 504

English for Early Childhood Development

Tuesdays: February 1, 15, March 1, March 22

6:00pm – 8:30pm

CARE Community Center 2325 E 12th St. Oakland 94601

Session 2

Course #22926 CHDEV 505

Early Childhood Education Curriculum

Tuesdays: April 5, 19, May 3, 17

6:00pm – 8:30pm

CARE Community Center 2325 E 12th St. Oakland 94601

Course #22924 ESOL 505

English for Early Childhood Education Curriculum

Tuesdays: April 12, 26, May 10, 24

6:00pm – 8:30pm

CARE Community Center 2325 E 12th St. Oakland 94601

CARE Community Center

Lao Family Community Development

2325 E 12th St. Oakland

 

Register Here

Meet your Coordinator!
She helps you register for classes.

Brenda Mora
bmora@peralta.edu
Text/Call: 925.587.6387

Brenda Mora is the Fruitvale office Coordinator. She grew up in Oakland and lived in Guadalajara for a few years. There she attended a few years of elementary, middle, and high school. She returned to Oakland in 2000 and graduated from Fremont High in 2002. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Sociology and Spanish from the University of California, Davis in 2007. During her undergraduate work at UC, Davis, worked as a Peer Advising Counselor for the Educational Opportunity Program providing personal and academic counseling to students. She studied abroad at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City in the Fall of 2006. Her first job after graduation was with the Unity Council’s Head Start program as a Family Advocate from 2007 to 2009 and began supporting the Merritt College @Fruitvale office in 2009. Although Brenda does not teach in the classroom, she likes to teach students how to be self-effective and resourceful for themselves, their families, and their communities when she meets with them in the office. Brenda enjoys making new memories with her family. Her children are very silly and her husband loves to make the entire family laugh.

Meet your Teachers!

Cheryl Eccles
ceccles@peralta.edu
Video

Cheryl Eccles is an adjunct ESOL instructor at Merritt College and has also taught at the American Language Institute (ALI) at San Francisco State University (SFSU). She promotes a collaborative classroom environment guiding her students to realize their own personal goals for academic and personal success. She encourages students to make the connection between college and their future goals, identify potential barriers to their college successes, and discover resources and strategies for overcoming those barriers. She received her BA at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and her MA in English/TESOL at SFSU. She also received a Certificate in the Teaching of Composition, and a Certificate in Teaching Post-Secondary Reading at SFSU. When not teaching, she enjoys hiking, backpacking, taking Spanish classes, and playing board games and ping pong with her family.

 

A.Evan Nichols
anichols@peralta.edu
Video

Evan Nichols is an ESOL and English instructor at Merritt College. He began his career teaching in a special education cooperative in Managua, Nicaragua with the Institute for Central American Development Studies. Next he taught English as a Foreign Language for one year at the Universidad Técnica de Machala in Ecuador. He earned his B.A. in Latin American Studies and Spanish Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an M.F.A. in English and Creative Writing (Creative Nonfiction) at Mills College. As a Teacher Consultant with the Bay Area Writing Project, he has taught creative writing camps in Oakland, South Korea, and China. He holds a ClearBilingual, Cross-cultural, Language and Academic Development Certificate from the State of California as well as a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. He taught for 16 years in California’s K-12 public schools, mostly in Oakland Unified, before reinventing himself as a community college instructor, first at Laney and Diablo Valley College and now at Merritt College, where he has taught full-time since 2016.

 

Emma Donnelly
edonnelly@peralta.edu
Video

Emma Donnelly is an ESOL instructor at Merritt College and a world traveler. Her passion for culture and languages brought her to twenty-six countries around the world. In 2010, she began teaching English to speakers of other languages in Cape Verde, West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. Upon her return, she earned a TESOL Certificate from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from University of San Francisco. Since then, Emma has taught in Asia, Europe, Latin America and locally at Cal State East Bay, Ohlone College and College of Alameda. Currently, Emma teaches Bridge to Credit ESOL courses at Merritt College and proudly serves on the Peralta Equity Team.

 

Robert Tindall
proftindall@gmail.com
Video

Robert Tindall is an adjunct ESOL instructor at Merritt College and has also taught at the Academy of Art University. As a storyteller/writer and musician, he promotes the teaching of culture, stories, and songs in English along with grammar, punctuation, and spelling. He also believes humor is important in the classroom and has even been known to tell bad jokes. He encourages students to develop a multicultural perspective, where they can embrace their new sense of identity as English speakers while holding to their own unique cultural backgrounds. Robert received his B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Music from U.H. Manoa, and two Master’s degrees from SFSU, one in English Literature and the other in MATESOL. When not teaching, he enjoys playing guitar, writing his fantasy novel, and boogie boarding with his 11-year-old daughter at the beach in Mendocino

 

Suzan Ormandy
sormandy@peralta.edu

Suzan Ormandy has loved teaching English to newcomers and old-timers at Merritt College for 30+ years!! She believes communication–Speaking Pronunciation, Vocabulary–is important and can be fun too. Join a class! See for yourself! In her free time, she loves to lap swim in a local pool but sometimes in the San Francisco Bay. She also teaches Aqua Aerobics. Gardening is another passion of hers as is spending time with her young granddaughter.

 

 

Jennifer Briffa
jbriffa@peralta.edu

Jennifer Briffa has been teaching at Merritt for 23 years. She is Peruvian American and fluent in Spanish. She was a student at Merritt College back in 1984 and received her AA degree in Child Development in 1986. Her areas of expertise are Anti-Bias Education, Children’s Literature, and Movement and Dance. She has taught Early Childhood Education for the past 37 years in many settings from toddler programs to preschools to elementary classrooms and now at Merritt.

 

 

 

 

Welcome to our Merritt community!

Click HERE Make an appointment to get help registering for classes.

CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS
ESOL Bridge to Credit Program
Four Courses

Level 1
541A – Bridge to Credit ESOL
Level 2

541B – Bridge to Credit ESOL
Level 3

541C – Bridge to Credit ESOL
Level 4

541D – Bridge to Credit ESOL

*You must pass all classes and have 134 in class hours to get a certificate

 

Infant/Toddler Development Certificate

Infant/Toddler Development Certificate
CHDEV 502 Introduction to Infant/Toddler Development ESOL 502 English for Infant/Toddler Development CHDEV 503 Introduction Infant/Toddler Curriculum ESOL 503 English for Infant/Toddler Curriculum

* When you pass all four classes, you will get a certificate!

 

Early Childhood Education Certificate

CHDEV 504 Introduction to Early Childhood Development ESOL 504 English for Early Childhood Development

CHDEV 505 Introduction to Early Childhood Education Curriculum ESOL 505 English for Early Childhood Education Curriculum

* When you pass all four classes, you will get a certificate!

Description of Courses

ESOL 511 Reading and Writing 1

High beginning level of reading and writing: Fiction and non-fiction readings adapted for ESL; writing short narrative and descriptive paragraphs.

1. Construct clear, effective, well-organized, well-developed, well-edited, and logically sound sentences and paragraphs with appropriate citation of sources, satisfying some of the high beginning ESOL standards.

2. Apply active reading strategies in order to partially comprehend, critically analyze, and explain ideas in high beginning ESOL texts.

3. Participate in campus and classroom culture at a level approaching that required for success as a high beginning ESOL student.

ESOL NON CREDIT COURSES

Level 1

ESOL 541A Bridge to Credit – Level I (8 weeks)

Introduction to basic English through the context of daily life activities: Listening, speaking, reading, and writing; basics of language structures, form, computer literacy, classroom culture and study skills within the context of personal information and circumstances.

  1. Students will become self-advocates by correctly filling out forms, contracts, and applications as needed for life in the United States.
  2. Students will use technology as it pertains to the context of the course.

Level 2

ESOL 541B Bridge to Credit – Level II (8 weeks)

Continuation of ESOL 541A: Listening, speaking, reading, and writing; basics of language structures and form, computer literacy, classroom culture and study skills within the context of jobs.

  1. Students will apply job-related activities to their own job search.
  2. Students will use technology as it pertains to the content of the course.

Level 3

ESOL 541C Bridge to Credit – Level III (8 weeks)

Continuation of ESOL 541B: Listening, speaking, reading, and writing; basics of language structures, form, computer literacy, classroom culture and study skills within the context of academic life.

  1. Students will develop education plans and other credit course readiness skills and materials
  2. Students will use Google software to organize class work.

Level 4

ESOL 541D Bridge to Credit – Level IV (8 weeks)

Continuation of ESOL 541C: Listening, speaking, reading, and writing; basics of language structures, form, computer literacy, classroom culture and study skills within the context of life experience.

  1. Students will assemble a portfolio of projects to demonstrate credit course readiness.
  2. Students will use technology as it pertains to the content of the course.

 

CHILD DEVELOPMENT NON-CREDIT COURSES

ESOL 502

ENGLISH FOR INFANT/TODDLER DEVELOPMENT

English language skills for common infant/toddler development topics: Practice in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

ESOL 503

ENGLISH FOR INFANT/TODDLER CURRICULUM

English language skills for common infant/toddler curriculum topics: Practice in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

ESOL 504

ENGLISH FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

English language skills for common early childhood development topics: Practice in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

ESOL 505

ENGLISH FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION CURRICULUM

English language skills for common early childhood education curriculum topics: Practice in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

 

ESOL Credit Course
ENGL 1AS
An academic reading and writing class for ESOL Students

Course: Composition and Reading with Support

English 1AS will help students improve their academic reading and writing skills with the support of an ESOL instructor. Students will practice reading, vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, essay structure, and research skills. By the end of this course, students will be able to read and write in different ways.

Course Description: Reading and writing of expository prose with extended instructional support for ESOL students: Critical thinking, identifying logical fallacies, and reasoning inductively and deductively; reading, writing, study, and information literacy strategies.

5 units Fee $

Peralta Colleges Student Fees page is HERE!