Overview
The ESL (English as a Second Language) Department is an autonomous division designed to meet the varied needs of the participants in the student oriented programs we offer.  This is accomplished in an age and level appropriate manner, grouping of students with peers of similar abilities and ages helps students to achieve their goal of increasing English proficiency.  Class size is limited to small groups of not more than ten students per class in order to assure that each student’s needs are identified and addressed.

Goal & Staff
Academic ESL coordinates closely with the administration and academic departments within NIS.  This helps identify areas of concern in each academic discipline so that appropriate solutions can be devised.
The aim of the Academic ESL program is to assist students in the acquisition of English proficiency to a level that enables them to perform at an age and grade appropriate academic level. While basic conversational skills pertaining to familiar subject areas can be acquired in a relative short period of time, the acquisition of academic English proficiency takes years to develop and is part of a lifelong learning process. To achieve this goal several ESL courses are available to assist students based on their current proficiency in the four language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
The teaching staff consists of native English speakers from around the world. In addition local teachers are also utilized to round out the staff. All teachers possess an English teaching certificate: TESOL, CELTA, TEFL, or TESL. In this way we assure that all members of the teaching staff have a thorough understanding of language acquisition and the training to make affective teachers. Furthermore, in’ Advanced course’ teachers who possess certificates of school subjects instruct academic English based on their subject areas.