ESL Department
As a part of the Language Arts Division, the Cypress College ESL Department offers a sequence of credit courses that prepares non-native English speakers for success in their college courses across the campus. The core courses are academically rigorous and academically-oriented in order to prepare students for ESL 110 C, our transfer-level composition course equivalent to English 100 C, degrees, transfer, certificate programs, and other academic goals.
Our ESL courses help you transfer!
All courses in the ESL sequence have some form of transferability.
- ESL 110 C, the highest-level ESL course, is a transfer-level composition course that fulfills Written Communication transfer and degree requirements for the UC, CSU, and Cypress College. It is fully equivalent to ENG 100 C. ESL 110 C fulfills IGETC 1A, CSU A2, and the Cypress College Native degree A1 requirements.
- ESL 109 C and ESL 108 C fulfill the CSU C2 and Cypress College Native C2 degree Humanities requirement.
- ESL 107 C, ESL 106 C, and ESL 105 C all have CSU elective transferability.
- For more information, visit the General Education (GE) page.
New ESL Placement Process
As of July 1, 2023, the ESL Assessment test is no longer offered at Cypress College. Cypress College has implemented a new placement process known as ESL Guided Placement. English Language Learners are invited to participate in this new process. For more on this, visit our ESL Guided Placement page.
If you have questions about ESL courses, need help with using the ESL Guided Placement tool and/or registering for an ESL course, or simply want to talk with an ESL instructor about the program, email esl@cypresscollege.edu.
What do our students think about Cypress ESL?
We think our students are amazing and have accomplished such great things, but you may want to hear what they have to say about Cypress! You can meet some of them by clicking on the ESL Student Testimonials button below.
You can also read about students who started in the Cypress College ESL program and have gone on to achieve great things!:
- Hiroki Funahashi (Presidential Scholar 2021)
- Anh Nguyen (Presidential Scholar 2020)
- Vy Vu (CYProud 2019)
- Pedro Romero-Nieva Santos (CYPossible 2019)
- Young Lee (CYPossible 2019)
- Myeong Seob (CYProud 2018)
- Ngoc Ngo (CYProud 2018)
Scholarships
The Cypress College ESL Department has two scholarships for ESL students.
The Jewel Keusder ESL Scholarship
The Jewel Keusder Memorial ESL Scholarship was founded in 1994 in tribute to the significant contribution made to the ESL Department by Jewel Keusder, a Reading and ESL instructor at Cypress College from 1976 to 1994. The first scholarship was awarded in the spring of 1995. It is administered by the California Building Industry Foundation, a philanthropic organization of which Mrs. Keusder was a part.
Jewel Keusder, after seeing that the needs of second language students were not being met by the curriculum in place at the time, developed the ESL program at the college. Since then, the program has grown in the variety of course offerings as well as the number of second language students enrolled in classes which appropriately address their English development needs.
The scholarship is awarded once a year during the spring semester to ESL students who have demonstrated excellence in their completion of advanced ESL courses as well as other courses on campus.
Previous Recipients of the Jewel Keusder ESL Scholarship
- 2020-2021 – Leticia Diaz Munoz, Safwan Mansuri, Umanga Agustinu Paris Kankanamal
- 2019-2020 – Farid Gerges, Minh Pham, Yuehan Sun
- 2018-2019 – Crystal Carbajal
- 2017-2018 – Anh Nguyen, Huong Nguyen, Huiyong Wu
- 2016-2017 – Ngoc Ngo
- 2015-2016 – Somang “Iosef” Sung
- 2014-2015 – Mr. Phong Le & Mr. Thuan “Chelsun” Tran
- 2013-2014 – Ms. Ngoc Do & Ms. Ngoc Nguyen
- 2012-2013 – Mr. Phuong Austin Nguyen
- 2011-2012 – Ms. Sunmi Lee
- 2010-2011 – Ms. Nicole Carlos & Ms. Chia-Lung Wu
- 2009-2010 – Ms. Huda Labanieh, Ms. Ying-Wei Lin, & Ms. Thuy Anh Nguyen
- 2008-2009 – Ms. Dung Thai
- 2007-2008 – Ms. Dana Dees, Ms. Carmen Fodoreanu, & Mr. Joshua Obidah
- 2006-2007 – Ms. Shu Chen, Ms. Angelica Rojo, & Ms. Da Thoa Truong
- 2005-2006 – Ms. Bixia Loi & Mr. Naydn Kim
- 2004-2005 – Mr. Jiang Bian, Ms. Nancy Hoang, & Ms. Lesly Perez
- 2003-2004 – Ms. Carolina Narajano & Ms. Siranya Stamm
- 2001-2002 – Ms. Mei Ling Hsu
- 2000-2001 – Ms. Minoo Amani & Ms. Maria Karol Manaloto
- 1999-2000 – Ms. Lee Fizer & Ms. Trinh (Annie) Ha
- 1998-1999 – Ms. Juliana Stingaciu
- 1997-1998 – Mr. Phong Nguyen & Ms. Emilia Prado
- 1996-1997 – Ms. Najwa Abouziki & Ms. Gloria Camacho
- 1995-1996 – Ms. Namyoung Park
- 1994-1995 – Ms. Sandra Baghdanous & Ms. Thuy Ton
Qualifications
To qualify for the scholarship, a student must meet the following criteria:
- The student must be currently enrolled in ESL 109 or ESL 110.
- The student must have successfully completed at least one ESL core course at Cypress College.
- The student must continue his/her education at Cypress College or at another U.S. college.
The procedures for application are as follows:
- Complete an application (available on the Foundation page).
- Complete an academic essay on the assigned topic.
- Ask two faculty members to complete the recommendation forms. One should be a current ESL instructor and the other a Cypress College instructor in a different department.
The ESL Department Buen Cypress Scholarship
The ESL Department Scholarship was founded in spring 2015 by ESL faculty wanting to recognize the hard work and persistence of ESL students in the program and to ensure the continued education of ESL students at Cypress College.
Previous Recipients:
- 2020-2021 – Thuy Thuy Anh Nguyen, Dung Le
- 2019-2020 – Kexin Gao, Eman Omar, Yuki Ono, Leticia Diaz Muñoz, Tuyen Cao, Semhar Weldegaber
- 2018-2019 – Nha Tran
- 2016-2017 – Jing Lee
Read about past recipients of ESL scholarships:
- Anh Nguyen (2020) Presidential Scholar of Distinction L/LRC
- Ngoc Ngo (CYProud 2018)
- Phong Le (CYProud 2017)
Qualifications:
To qualify for the scholarship, a student must meet the following criteria:
- The student must be currently enrolled in ESL 106, 107, or 108
- The student must have successfully completed at least one ESL core course at Cypress College
The procedures for application are as follows:
- Complete an application (available on the Foundation page).
- Complete an academic essay on the assigned topic.
- Ask two faculty members to complete the recommendation forms. One should be a current ESL instructor and the other a Cypress College instructor in a different department.