Welland Heritage Council offers an excellent ESL program for newcomers to Canada. Classes run every day from 9am to 2pm.

The classes are carefully divided into proficiency levels that cover Canadian Language Benchmarks 1 to 6, reflecting our recognition that newcomers are unique individuals who come to us with diverse backgrounds and needs.

Locations:

Welland

Niagara Falls

Grimsby

Placement Process for ESL Classes

When new students apply to study ESL at the Welland Heritage Council, there is an evaluation process that we help you with so we know at what level you will enter the classes. Each student is assessed in all four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students are then placed in the class that best suits their English language level.

Each term students receive two reports on their performance in class: a midterm progress report and a final progress report. We issue the first report at the mid-point in the term and the other report at the end.

We offer continuous intake for our ESL classes which means that new students are welcome at any time.

The Welland Heritage Council’s ESL program is funded by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services through the District School Board of Niagara.

Language Programs

Citizenship Study Classes and Credit Courses are available. Information is available about Language Proficiency Certification.

After leaving our classes to go to Brock University one student wrote:

 “My writing course [at Brock] is okay. I have an advantage that I know what the teacher is talking about (clauses, subject-verb agreement, paired conjunctions, gerunds and infinitives, etc),” adding that she has experienced success with her subject-area term papers, too: “Those papers are the results of both your dedication and excellent methodology. I’m writing to thank you…”

And another wrote to say,

“I want to tell you again. Without the fundamentals that I have in English because of your classes, I don’t think I would be able to do what I am doing now.”

A married couple who moved on to good jobs in Toronto wrote to tell us,

“I wish to thank you and the teachers of the Welland Heritage Council for all the patience and dedication that you had with me and my wife during the 15 months that we studied. During those times we learned many important and interesting aspects of Canada – its political life, culture, and geography. Those classes had a strong influence on us and we have learned to love this country and its people. Thank you. We now have a better preparation and confidence with the language and we want to give to the country the best of us. You and the teachers will always be in our hearts.”

At WHC, we see many success stories like these, with former students moving on to become happy members of the community and productive contributors to the economy.

Teachers in our Centre must have a minimum of a Bachelor of Education and Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) certification recognized by TESL Ontario.

Please call or visit the Centre for more information about joining our classes.