Picking up and starting somewhere new is tough.

You may not know much (or any!) of the local language. And you don’t know what else you don’t know. How to visit a doctor. How the Canadian school system works. How to prep for a long winter.

The new Canadian English for Newcomers course is designed to help immigrants and refugees in Canada quickly gain the English skills and cultural knowledge they need to navigate their new daily lives. Available for speakers of 12 languages. (Side note: there is also an American English version!)

This 25-unit course covers everyday basics, immediate needs, and immigration topics including:

• Shopping for groceries & essentials
• Navigating public transportation
• Understanding the school system
• Getting medical & dental care
• Looking for work & interviewing
• Securing housing & utilities
• Using technology

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 shopping for groceries. 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 2,000+ essential words and phrases. From start to finish, the course takes more than 50 hours. But! There is no fixed order. Learners can hop around from unit to unit, 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 Canada.

To help acquire new vocab ASAP, the course is taught in 12 languages:

• Arabic (MSA)
• Chinese (Mandarin)
• Dari
• Farsi
• French
• Gujarati
• Hindi
• Punjabi (Gurmukhi)
• Spanish
• Tagalog
• Ukrainian
• Urdu

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 American English for Newcomers for our friends in the US!)

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