ESL Department
The ESL department at MAA is geared toward building a foundation for Emerging English Language Learners that fosters community, creativity, and critical thinking. Through the use of theater, small group instruction, and high interest texts, students learn close reading, speaking with confidence, active listening, and analytical writing. Whether students are in the developing stages of language acquisition, or reaching proficiency, our rigorous program works to prepare them for a smooth transition to college, and helps guide them toward fulfilling careers.
Bernadette McComish earned her B.A. in English and Creative Writing at Hunter College in 2007, her M.F.A in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College in 2009, and is currently obtaining her second master's in Education at her Alma Mater: Hunter. Before becoming the ESL Coordinator at MAA she ran an after school program for at risk teenagers, and was a professor at SUNY and CUNY colleges. Her poems have been published in journals such as the Cortland Review, Sunday Salon, Slipstream, Hospital Drive, and most recently in Storyscape.