Citizenship: Passing the Test

Help your students prepare for the new Citizenship Test. Citizenship: Passing the Test provides all of the skill and concepts your students need to pass the civics and literacy tests and prepare for the interview. The program comes in three parts. Each part of the program includes a workbook and audio CDs.

Civics and Literacy Student Book
(Literacy – Low Beginning)

• Material is presented in a visual format
• Students learn words that must be pronounced correctly in spoken answers
• Words key to recognizing and understanding oral civics questions are presented
• Words found on the official spelling list are identified
• Students can review the official USCIS test questions

The Civics and Literacy Audio CD helps students build listening comprehension skills that are critical to passing the civics and literacy tests.

Ready for the Interview
(High-Beginning – Intermediate)

• Students learn to prepare for various interview situations and answer questions from the N-400 application
• Vocabulary and communication skills are reinforced to build student confidence
• Students practice asking to have a question repeated

The Ready for the Interview Audio CD includes exercises to check understanding, sample interview segments, and questions that can be used to practice answering with personal information.

Literacy Skills Workbook
(Literacy – Low Beginning)

• Students learn sounds and names of letters, simple spelling patterns, and sight word recognition
• Writing is taught through modified dictation activities
• Each student page contains a note to the teacher to guide student learning

The Literacy Skills Audio CD provides oral instructions and models for pronunciations of featured words and dictations.

Phonetics is the key.

Does your student have trouble pronouncing certain sounds? Do you have difficulty explaining how the student should produce the sound?

Different languages have different speech patterns. Sometimes, a student will have difficulty with the same sounds because those sounds just aren't used in their native language. This makes it rather difficult to learn how to pronounce words correctly.

The handouts below will help in identifying your student's phonetic problem areas.

Phonetics/articulation chart (PDF)
Pair-work exercise for TESOL Instructors (PDF)

Paired with Phonetics: The Sounds of American English, developed by the University of Iowa, you should have a better grasp of how certain sounds are produced. Each consonant and vowel has its own articulation animation, a step-by-step description, and video-audio of the sound spoken in context.

(Make sure you have Flash installed on your computer.)

Additional Resources:
Authentic American Pronunciation
Some Techniques for Teaching Pronunciation

Useful Links

The websites below provide tips for tutors, lesson plans, activities, etc.

• EL/Civics Online Citizenship and naturalization lesson planning.
• Dave's ESL Cafe The Internet's meeting place for ESL students and teachers.
• ESL Party Land English activities, interactive quizzes, lesson plans and more.
• One Stop English Hundreds of prepared lessons, guided reading worksheets and many other free resources.
• Everything ESL Download classroom activities, discussion topics, lesson plans, teaching tips and more.
• Activities for ESL Students Over 1,000 ESL activities.
• English for All English For All is a free Web-based multimedia system for adults learning English as a second language
• Literacy4All Free literacy resources for tutors and students.
• English Club Cambridge's English Club is a full-service portal for English-language learners. There are resources for teaching as well as learning. Users can join EC for free.
  
• English Page Advanced English lessons.
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Educator and volunteer resources.
  

Other Community Resources

If your ESL student is interested in more structured learning in a classroom setting, Pinellas County Schools offers free English classes for adults at these locations:

- Clearwater Adult Education Center
540 S. Hercules Ave.
Clearwater, FL 33764
(727) 469-4190

- Dixie Hollins Adult Education Center
4940 62nd St. N
St. Petersburg, FL 33709
(727) 547-7872

- Lakewood Community School
1400 54th Ave. S
St. Petersburg, FL 33705
(727) 893-2955

- Northeast Community School
1717 54th Ave. N
St. Petersburg, FL 33714
(727) 570-3193

- Tomlinson Adult Learning Center
296 Mirror Lake Dr. N
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
(727) 893-2723

- Palm Harbor Community School
1900 Omaha St.
Palm Harbor, FL 34683
(727) 669-1140