For whatever reason, the worldwide boom in the study of English is a fact. A variety of acronyms exist to describe this phenomenon, but in the United States the term most widely used is “ESL” or “English as a Second Language.”

Long before many schools, businesses, and governments recognized that speaking English was an important skill, Cambridge Schools opened its doors in 1935 and began its history of English education. Though the initial focus of the school was business, it was soon apparent that many of its students desired a quality English language school. By 1953, Cambridge Schools had become an ESL school decades before such an institution would be common.

However, the new focus was just good business sense: The year before, the United Nations building had just been completed a few blocks east and Cambridge Schools found itself once again the beneficiary of New York City’s internationalism. (The city, and sometimes the school, had always been the destination of immigrants.)

At present, Cambridge continues as an English as a second language school for several types of students. Some are immigrants, others are diplomats or businesspeople, but most are international students here on F-1 student visas (sometimes referred to as i20 visa applications). These students come from all over the world: Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East. Cambridge Schools usually has students from at least 35 different countries.

Our program offers 10 levels of English study. The standard English language course at Cambridge Schools is a perfect balance between study of grammar structures and development of fluency through the strategies of communicative language learning: conversation, debates, presentations, and other types of practice. For our advanced students, we also offer TOEFL preparation classes and many interesting elective courses (for example, Business English, Video, Writing, Reading, and Fluency).

Though the program at Cambridge Schools has a standard syllabus which pervades our classes, it would be hard to say what a typical ESL class at our school might be like. The truth is that each class depends on the expertise and originality of the ESL teacher to bring the syllabus to life. The teachers at Cambridge Schools are each highly experienced professionals trained in ESL (and often other disciplines as well). Many have taught abroad. The excellence of our faculty is our school’s most important asset.

Most of our students have come to us because they have friends or family who learned at our school. To date, the recommendations of our former students have been our greatest means of student recruitment.

Our school’s friendly and demanding ESL program has inspired thousands of students to speak English.