Our unique, full-time, immersive program enables participants to improve their English language rapidly, allowing them to fast-track into employment commensurate with their skills and experience, sector-specific training, or to continue with their post-secondary education. Riverside participants achieve results in weeks that would take months, if not years, in a part-time program. Our intensive six-week program is equivalent to one year in a part-time class.

Here’s how our program works:

  • English classes are offered in several levels for beginners to high-intermediate

  • Participants are pre-tested to determine the appropriate-level class for their needs and, after six weeks, post-tested to measure their educational gain

  • All classes are taught by highly experienced ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) instructors, who hold Master’s Degrees in TESOL, or a closely related discipline

  • Classes are five days a week, from 9 am to 3 pm, and each class lasts six weeks. Classes have approximately 20 - 24 participants

  • Instruction is focused on speaking and listening skills, with an emphasis on building practical and contextual fluency and accurate pronunciation rather than rote learning

  • Riverside’s dedicated volunteers complement classroom instruction by facilitating informal conversation sessions several times a week. Conversation provides students with authentic opportunities to communicate in a ‘real world’ situation, building their fluency and confidence

  • Our curriculum provides IT instruction and regular practice, as well as job-readiness workshops

  • Civics instruction is a core part of the curriculum, helping students integrate into their new lives in New York City. Class trips give our newly resettled participants insight into the city’s history and cultural treasures

  • Certificates are awarded upon the successful completion of each class

After each six-week cycle, participants may move on to another class level. Continuation, however, is not automatic and depends upon several factors, including the student’s level of English proficiency and the teacher’s assessment of the student’s progress.