English for Speakers of Other Languages
We offer credit courses and directed studies to help English language learners and non-native speakers develop English language proficiency for academic success, career development, and effective communication
Tutoring and Support Services are available to all NHTI students whose native language is not American English. These services include individualized professional support for challenges in oral and written expression, tutoring in academic subjects, test accommodations, and more.
ESOL Tutoring and Support Services can help students:
- Understand an assignment.
- Organize ideas before or during a writing project.
- Clarify English vocabulary.
- Become comfortable with grammar issues.
- Comprehend reading assignments.
- Read academic textbooks.
- Document research papers properly to avoid plagiarism (a serious academic offense).
- Summarize authors’ ideas so writing is improved.
- Prepare and practice oral presentations.
- Explain assignments briefly.
- Help students sign up for ACE tutoring services.
To make a tutoring appointment, email ACE at NHTIace@ccsnh.edu or call 603-230-4027 M-F, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Our support services include:
- Testing accommodations for ESOLs
- Support in communicating with faculty, registrar’s office, admissions, etc.
- Individualized English study skills
- Computer and word processing assistance
- FAFSA application support
- Scholarship application support
To make an appointment, email Rosie Hughes-Smith at rhughessmith@ccsnh.edu or call 230-4000 x4410.
In collaboration with other divisions, services, and departments, we provide resources and information and facilitate the development of cultural competence, multicultural awareness, interpersonal communication, and conflict management in our increasingly diverse community.
- Guest teaching and presentations for academic classes
- Training sessions and workshops (tailor-designed for specific needs)
- Cultural Competence Team
- Resources and community network
- Student activities including the Multicultural Festival and the Cultural Exchange Club
For more information, contact Dawn Higgins, academic advisor, at dhiggins@ccsnh.edu or call 603-271-6484 x4208.
This service assists students with multicultural/multilingual backgrounds with the challenges they face in academic studies, interpersonal communication, and cultural transition.
- Academic advising
- Initial contacts
- Cultural adjustment assistance
- Enrollment/retention assistance
- ESOL placement testing
- Placement and registration
- Ongoing needs assessment
- Follow-up progress
- Service coordination
- Multicultural events and activities
- Cultural Exchange Club advising
For more information, contact Dawn Higgins, academic advisor, at dhiggins@ccsnh.edu or call 603-271-6484 x4208.
The Conversation Partners Program facilitates cultural exchange between native English-speaking students and non-native English-speaking students outside of the classroom environment, thereby promoting cross-cultural communication and maintaining a friendly environment at NHTI.
For the non-native English speakers, the Conversation Partner Program is an opportunity to meet Americans, learn more about American culture, and practice their spoken English. For native English speakers, the Conversation Partners Program provides an opportunity to meet people from different countries and to learn more about different cultures.
DOWNLOAD the Conversation partners Handbook
To make an appointment, email Rosie Hughes-Smith at rhughessmith@ccsnh.edu or call 230-4000 x4410.
Meet Our Staff
- ESOL Advisor: Dawn Higgins is the academic advisor to ESOL students at NHTI and works directly with English language learners in many ways at NHTI. Instructing and advising second language adults in higher education for 19 years, she is also a certified K-12 ESOL teacher in N.H. and linguistics instructor at NHTI. Dawn earned her undergraduate degree in French and English and her Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of New Hampshire and the Université de Bourgogne in Dijon, France.
- ESOL Project Coordinator: Rosie Hughes-Smith holds a Human Services degree from NHTI, a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Granite State College, and Master of Science in Psychology from Southern New Hampshire University. She knows our multilingual students well. She is the project coordinator and has been with NHTI since 2013. She manages the Conversation Partners Program, which offers ESOL students the ability to practice their English language skills with native speakers and helps native speakers learn about different cultures. She is also advisor of the Cultural Exchange Club, a student-run organization on campus devoted to exploring issues of culture, language, and diversity, hosting numerous on-campus and community events throughout the academic year.
- ESOL Department Chair: Dr. Paula DelBonis-Platt serves as chair of Liberal Arts, General Studies, Social Sciences, and ESOL at NHTI, where she is also a professor of English, Communication, and French. She earned her Ph.D. from the City University of New York, specializing in transnational literature and human rights. Dr. DelBonis-Platt has also taught at the Université de Bourgogne and worked for eight years at Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press. In 2021, she received the Campus Compact of N.H.’s Presidents’ Good Steward Award, and in 2015 she received the Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence at NHTI. She co-chairs NHTI’s Assessment of Student Learning, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee and serves on NHTI’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force.
Our Community Network
Second Start – English as a Second Language Program
17 Knight Street, Concord, NH 03301
Phone: 603-228-1341
Fax: 603-228-3852
email: ESL@second-start.org
Second Start is a private non-profit educational corporation offering a wide variety of programs designed to improve the economic and educational well-being of New Hampshire residents.
The English as a Second Language Program offers adult instruction in English conversation, reading, writing, grammar, and survival skills to refugees and immigrants. Cross-cultural communication, cooperative learning, and the development of self-confidence are important components of the ESL Program. Ongoing enrollment. Free classes.
Community Education – Concord High School
170 Warren Street, Concord, NH 03301
Phone: 603-225-0804
Fax: 603-225-0826
email: class@csd.k12.nh.us
Related Documents
Contact Us:
ESOL Office
Learning Commons Library
31 College Drive
Concord, NH 03301
603-271-6484 x4410
