RIC Invests in Educational Success of Adult English Language Learners

RIC’s Outreach Programs, led by Jenifer Giroux, provides “survival” English for non-English speakers. This program services approximately 150 adults a year, said Giroux, RIC vice president for professional studies and continuing education.

Participants include refugees, the unemployed and the underemployed who are referred to the program by the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, the Department of Human Services, the Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Office of Rehabilitation Services.

Outreach also provides job training and workplace English in medical assistance, bookkeeping and accounting, social and human services assistance and community health. Medical assistants train in their field and learn vocabulary specific to the health field, while those who are training to be bookkeepers and accounting clerks focus on finance-related vocabulary.

Job training includes placements in internships, which give students the opportunity to apply the skills they’ve learned. Outreach case managers assist with childcare, transportation and housing. 

The program culminates in a graduation ceremony, where students celebrate their accomplishments with friends and family. “We stay in touch with our graduates until they’ve found a job and even after they’re found employment,” Giroux said, “We continue to check in to see how we can support them.”

Another pathway to ESL instruction is through RIC’s Adult Education Intensive ESL Program. This program offers four levels of instruction: beginner, low intermediate, high intermediate and advanced. Summer courses are a mix of proficiencies, while fall and spring courses are broken up into the four levels.

The program differs from Outreach Programs in that participants must already have basic English proficiency.

According to Shélynn Riel-Osorio ’11 M.Ed. ’13, program coordinator, “The typical demographic is newly arrived immigrants who were professionals in their home country but lack enough English to engage in the same professional work in the United States. Others are young people who just graduated from high school and are here visiting their family over the summer. The program is open to adults age 18 and older.”

In addition, Intensive ESL is offering for the first time this fall a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) preparation course for international students who wish to attend college in the United States. Riel-Osorio noted that this is a rigorous hybrid course for advanced English language learners.

Ultimately, to transition English language learners from ESL course work to college is what Giroux and Riel-Osorio hope for all of the students who pass through their programs. Giroux noted that Outreach’s social and human services assistance training is a partnership between Outreach and RIC’s School of Social Work. Courses are taught by social work faculty and lead to a Certificate of Undergraduate Study.

“About 80 percent of students in this training come back for a bachelors degree in social work,” said Giroux. “And that is what I’ve always wanted to see – Outreach trainings tied to credit-bearing courses at RIC – Outreach as a springboard into higher education. I have a huge debt of gratitude to the School of Social Work for being the first to formalize a partnership with us.”

Riel-Osorio added, “There are many TESL-certified educators who are interested in working with adults; however, TESL programs are designed for pre-K-through-grade-12 teachers. TESL certification specific to teachers interested in working with adult learners might be something you see in the coming years.”

For more information on Outreach Programs, email Jenifer Giroux at outreachprograms@ric.edu or 401-456-8698.

For more information on the Adult Education Intensive ESL courses, e-mail Shélynn Riel-Osorio at srielosorio@ric.edu. Fall courses begin Monday, August 29, and run through Thursday, December 8. Class times are Monday-Thursday, 7-9 p.m. The cost is $550 to take classes for noncredit and approximately $1,200 to take classes for credit. The TOEFL preparation class also begins Monday, August 29, and will be offered as a hybrid.