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English as a Second Language (ESL) is usually taught as a pull-out class, or a preparatory seminar, or a summer program at a school designed for a broader slate of classes. Colleges use ESL to prepare international students for normal English-language instruction. Above this, overseas as well as in the English-speaking world, there are schools and academies devoted entirely to the teaching of language: English as a Second Language Schools. For those who have a choice, I recommend ESL studies in one of these dedicated schools. In an English as a Second Language School, the curriculum is allowed to go past the niceties of greetings and simple conversation. Programs focus on niche vocabulary, for business or technology or some other specific need. Time can be taken to practice language skills that would be a luxury in typical ESL classes. Students find themselves studying the language in the form of popular literature, songs, poetry, and discourse. In advanced courses, they learn to debate. In other words, they achieve the level of fluency needed for successful negotiation. For the student majoring in English in typical university programs, taking a class or two per semester, these levels of fluency are not learned until the fourth and fifth years. Such schools can be found through portal sites like Esldirectory.com. Or they might stand alone, like the Madison English as a Second Language School of Madison, Wisconsin (USA) - Mesls.org. Some colleges become ESL schools in the summer, turning their classrooms entirely over to language classes. In other cases, ESL takes its place next to SSL (Spanish as a Second Language), GSL (German as a Second Language), ASL (Arabic as a Second Language), and others, in larger language-only schools. The environment is stimulating to language learning, and the students become a cadre of mutually-supportive tutors, teaching and learning from each other.
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English as a Second Language Schools
