College Offers Customized Workplace English Training

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas -- Lone Star College-Montgomery has announced a new program to offer training in language and culture to the employees of area businesses. The program is designed to be customized to the special needs of individual businesses with employees who have recently transferred to the United States from a foreign country. Specializing in workplace English, the program--part of the college’s Language and Culture Institute--has two goals:

- familiarize foreign professionals with American business culture and practices; and

- increase the language skills of those professionals in reading, speaking and writing English as used in the American workplace.

“When the business community has called upon us to deliver high quality, customized language and cultural awareness training, we’ve been able to respond and with specialized instruction designed to meet the specific needs of our clients,” said Stephen Koszewski, program manager at Lone Star College-Montgomery.

Given that employees work full time, scheduling for instruction is flexible, with classes that can be held in the evening or on weekends, either at the college or at the business offices of the participating company. Online training is also an option, according to Koszewski, as well as group instruction or a tutorial approach.

Instructors are experienced in both language training and business. Instructor Dr. James Cortese has worked for such companies as AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, and Cendant Consultants, specializing in language training for foreign nationals. He is currently training a group of geologists relocated from Brazil.

Rashda Mady is certified in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) and has taught English for special purposes and English as a foreign language for more than 14 years at the British Council Teaching Center, the English Teaching Program at the American Center and at Alexandria University, in Alexandria, Egypt. She has also taught Arabic to foreigners during her career.

In addition to training in American culture and language, the LSC-Montgomery program also offers foreign language instruction in Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, and Spanish, the most popular offering.

A two-week Spanish immersion program in Guadalajara, Mexico, is set for this summer, with more than 30 participants enrolled in the program.

For more information, contact Stephen Koszewski at (936) 273-7435. For information on Lone Star College-Montgomery continuing education courses, go to the Web site at the link below.

For more information about Lone Star College-Montgomery, visit the College's Web site or call (936) 273-7000. The college is located at 3200 College Park Drive, approximately one-quarter mile west of I-45 between Conroe and The Woodlands.

Lone Star College System consists of five colleges, including CyFair, Kingwood, Montgomery, North Harris, and Tomball, six centers and Lone Star College-University Center. With 49,250 students, it is the largest college system in the Houston area, and third largest community college district in Texas. To learn more, visit the College System's Web site.