Please note: Language support is available for anyone who may need/want it by choosing your native
language from "Select Language" at the top of the screen. Please understand, LMC
is not responsible for the accuracy of the translation provided by Google Translate.
Are you a non-native English speaker who wants and/or needs to learn and improve your
ability to communicate in English?
Well, we are here to help you!
Our department's mission is to serve and support any and all immigrant, refugee, and
international students whose first language is not English learn, practice, apply,
and ultimately acquire both general and academic English language and communication
skills, strategies, and abilities for personal, social, civic, educational, and/or
career purposes.
No matter what your initial reason for coming to study ESL at LMC is, we want to help
you achieve that goal and help you consider, learn about, create, and fulfill new goals!
Our over-arching program goal is to empower you with English language skills and communication
abilities and to strengthen your growing bilingual and multilingual capabilities -
which are both necessities and assets in our personal and global worlds today. We
will recognize and celebrate your educational successes, encourage you to build on
those successes, guide and support your progress along our ESL pathway through our
General to Academic ESL course sequences, and prepare you to confidently access and ultimately succeed in
the career education and general education pathway of your choice at LMC.
To accomplish this, we offer certificate-based packages of ESL courses to serve and support students at different stages of their English language proficiency.
Each of these packages is made up of either two or three distinct, yet instructionally
integrated, courses, and as a Los Medanos College ESL student, you can choose to take
them in either their CREDIT or NON-CREDIT form.
Credit Classes
- charge the college's per-unit tuition
- cannot be repeated
- have Letter Grades (85s & 95s) orPass/No Pass (65s & 75s)
- offer College Skills Certificates you can earn
- are eligible for Financial Aid
- do have California residency requirements
- are listed as units earned on your Transcript
- may have required materials students MUST purchase in order to be and remain actively enrolled
- have mirrored non-credit course counterparts
- teach the same content and skills in the same classroom with the same professor as
the noncredit class
Non-Credit Classes
- are tuition-free
- can be repeated
- are ALL graded as Pass / No Pass / Satisfactory Progress
- offer Certificates of Competency you can earn
- are not eligible for Financial Aid
- are open to undocumented students
- do not have California residency requirements
- will be listed separately on a Transcript
- may have required materials that students MUST purchase in order to be and remain actively enrolled
- have mirrored credit course counterparts
- teach the same content and skills in the same classroom with the same professor as
the credit classes
The choice is yours!
You can find out more information about all of the courses and certificates by accessing
Pathways & Courses and Certificates, and, when you are ready, you can learn what stage of language learning is right
for you by going through our placement process.
ESL Guided and Informed Self-Placement
If you need help along the way or have questions, always remember help is available,
and one of the best places to get help is by making an appoint with our/your ESL Counselor
(Counseling & Support).
Now, you may ask yourself: Is LMC the right place for me?
That's a great question, and we would answer by asking you: Do any of the following characteristics describe you?
I am a non-native English speaker, and...
- I am new to the U.S. and to this part of California, or perhaps I have lived here
for a number of years.
- I am an international student here on an F1 Visa.
- I am a working adult and/or a parent who has children in a local school.
- I am currently a local high school student myself, or I am a graduate of one of the
high schools here in East Contra Costa County (or somewhere else in the U.S.).
- I went to school in my home country, and perhaps I have a high school diploma, college
degree, or professional certification.
- I took ESL classes at an Adult Education school, and now I want to transition into
the college.
- I have U.S. citizenship, am working toward getting it, or maybe I do not and am not.*
Hopefully, you see yourself represented among the above descriptions of who our LMC
ESL students are.
Our students - and our faculty - are wonderfully diverse, and we greatly value the
richness that such diversity brings to our classrooms and our community. We hope
you will want to join our ever-growing community of learners, and as you do so, we
want to welcome you, and let you know that we are honored that you have chosen our
program, and we look forward to meeting you and working with you!
*We are proud to be a part of the California Community College higher education system that supports
Undocumented Students.
