Picking up and starting somewhere new is tough.

Finding a new home. A new job. A new doctor. A new school. Even just a new grocery store.

Now throw in a language barrier. Surrounded by people, but you can’t ask for help. It’s not tough, it’s nearly impossible.

The new “American English for Newcomers” course is designed to help immigrants, refugees, and other newcomers to the U.S. quickly gain the English they need to navigate their new daily lives. (Side note: there is also a Canadian English version!)

What’s covered in the course

This 25-unit course covers everyday basics, immediate needs, and newcomer-specific situations, including:

• Shopping for groceries & essentials
• Looking for work & interviewing
• Securing housing & utilities
• Getting medical & dental care
• Using technology
• Navigating public transportation
• Enrolling in public schools
• Understanding the U.S. government, immigration processes & citizenship

Unlike a beginner English textbook or course, “English for Newcomers” prioritizes rapidly memorizing the vocabulary learners need most, as our Director of Content Orsi Gall explains:

“This course is about function over form. Learning English as a newcomer in the thick of it isn’t about perfecting grammar or speaking eloquently. It’s about understanding and being understood—especially for immediate needs like navigating public transit to find a grocery store. Sometimes just a handful of key words is all you need. The course content and the spaced repetition activities are designed to help learners quickly pick up what they need, when they need it.”

And by key vocabulary, we mean 1,782 essential words and phrases. From start to finish, the course takes about 56 hours. But! There is no fixed order, so no one has to do it from start to finish. Learners can hop around, learning what they need most in the moment. Doctor’s appointment tomorrow? Jump right to that unit, no need to finish any of the previous units.

Each unit also incorporates native speaker audio, images, and cultural comments with tips about language usage and information about living in the United States.

To help acquire new vocab ASAP, the course is taught in 25 languages:

• Amharic
• Arabic
• Bengali
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Cambodian (Khmer)
• Cantonese
• Chinese (Mandarin)
• Dari
• Farsi
• French
• Fulani
• Gujarati
• Haitian Creole
• Hmong
• Karen
• Korean
• Pashto
• Russian
• Somali
• Spanish
• Tigrinya
• Turkish
• Ukrainian
• Urdu
• Vietnamese

How to use this course with English learners in your community

Hear from the course creators, Orsi Gall and Lei Zeng. They explain how the course is unique, break down the course structure, and provide suggestions for how to use it with English learners at your library or literacy center.

And grab your copy of the American English for Newcomers Conversation Activity Guide, which includes classroom or conversation club activity ideas for every unit.

Explore the full ESOL collection

Canadian English for Newcomers is one component of the 300+ hour ESOL collection in Transparent Language Online.

Explore the entire ESOL collection in the free trial to see if it’s right for the ELLs in your community. (Which also includes Canadian English for Newcomers for our neighbors in Canada.)

And if your library already subscribes, the English for Newcomers collection is automatically available to you and your patrons!