English & ESL Course Sequence Background Image

English & ESL Course Sequence

Click on the chart below to learn more about the courses that best support your college success

English and ESL Course Sequence

How to Complete ENGL 100 Successfully

ENGL 100 is a college composition course that students must complete in order to transfer. At MiraCosta, we offer several different versions of ENGL 100 and different pathways to complete ENGL 100 within one year. All versions of ENGL 100 meet the same transfer requirements; each version and pathway has been designed with specific learning preferences or topical interests in mind.

Click on the course names above and the tabs below to explore which course is the best fit for you.

English 100 Options

ENGL 100 On Campus

An ENGL 100 class that meets in a traditional classroom will feature interactive discussions, workshops, and a variety of reading and writing-based assignments.

Expect to spend 3-4 hours of weekly reading and 4-8 hours of weekly writing. Essay prompts will demand complex, multipage responses that may invite you to break free from the “five paragraph” essay and adopt more flexible, logical structures for your ideas.

Through these activities, you will broaden your understanding of logic and diction and grow confident in the decisions you make as a writer.

English 100 & English 52 - Highly Supported English

The 100/52 co-requisite option offers students with an ENGL 50 recommendation an opportunity to fulfill the transfer-level ENGL 100 requirement with the assistance of a 2-unit ENGL 52 support class. ENGL 52 offers intensive practice in the skills needed to read college-level texts and compose college-level essays. Highly supported ENGL 52/100 is best suited for students who have a strong work ethic and a motivation to work through the complexity of transfer level writing assignments.

How you'll be challenged and how you’ll be supported

ENGL 100 Online

Taking ENGL 100 online offers many benefits, including the flexibility to manage your own time, opportunities to participate in a community of online learners, and access to digital resources and skills that can help deepen your learning and growth as a writer.

The challenges you'll face in ENGL 100 online lie in the time required to complete the assignments. Online coursework simply requires more reading and writing than you would find in a traditional ENGL 100 held in a classroom. This is because everything we normally say out loud in a classroom has to be written and read in an online class.

Explore your readiness for online course work further

English 100 Hybrid

Hybrid ENGL 100 classes require regular participate during scheduled meetings on campus as well as in various activities assigned online. During a typical week, a hybrid ENGL 100 class will meet for 2-hours on campus and assign an additional 9 - 10 hours of work watching lectures, reading the textbook, interacting with activities, participating in discussions, reading texts, and writing/revising essay drafts.

The benefits of hybrid learning experiences can be found in a flexible schedule and in the various modes of reading and writing (video, text, audio, in-person, online, in collaboration, and as an individual); the challenge lies in adjusting to the different ways professors teach the hybrid course and in managing your time and motivation to complete online tasks.

English 100 Multilingual

These sections of English 100 are specially designed to meet the needs of students from multilingual/ESL backgrounds. The instructors assigned to these courses have additional training to teach composition to students from diverse language backgrounds. Instructors work with students to build understanding of unfamiliar concepts as well as to address vocabulary and grammar issues unique to students who come from multilingual backgrounds. These sections are open to all students but are particularly suited to support the needs of non-native English writers. Please look for ENGL 100 sections with the class section note "This section is specially designed to meet the needs of students from multilingual/ESL backgrounds."

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English 100 with Themes and Learning Communities
Develop reading and writing skills while digging deeper into your interests! We offer different English 100 sections each semester focusing on themes such as Allied Health, Child Development, Computer Science, Music, Social Justice, and Gender. We also offer Learning Communities, which are two linked courses where the instructors work together to create intersecting learning experiences for student. So, if you have a particular passion, academic major, or career direction, learn more about Learning Communities and search the current course schedule for English 100 courses with themes that fits your interests and goals.

ENGL Pathways

English 100 & English 52 - Highly Supported English

The 100/52 co-requisite option offers students with an ENGL 50 recommendation an opportunity to fulfill the transfer-level ENGL 100 requirement with the assistance of a 2-unit ENGL 52 support class. ENGL 52 offers intensive practice in the skills needed to read college-level texts and compose college-level essays. Highly supported ENGL 52/100 is best suited for students who have a strong work ethic and a motivation to work through the complexity of transfer level writing assignments.

How you'll be challenged and how you’ll be supported

English 50 Pre-transfer Preparation

ENGL 50 helps students develop the reading, writing, and critical thinking strategies necessary to engage with and respond to college-level topics and assignments. This class will help you to develop a “toolbox” of reading and writing strategies to help you read, think, and write at the college level. You will also gain an introduction to research skills, technology resources, and other academic writing requirements.

How you’ll be challenged and how you’ll be supported

Support Options

ESL Support

The American College English (ACE) and Credit English as a Second Language (ESL) Department offers a number of specialty courses to support advanced English skill development. Students who are taking composition courses can benefit from electing to take one or more of these additional support courses in order to build strong language skills. The ESL faculty have designed these courses to target the speaking, listening, reading, vocabulary, and grammar skills necessary for success in all college courses.

See and hear from our students about our ESL classes

ESL 80: Advanced Grammar for Writing is particularly suited as a companion course to English 100.

Additional courses in Listening & Speaking Skills (ESL 20) and Reading and Vocabulary Development (ESL 30) are also available.

English 40 Grammar Review

English 40 Grammar Review provides a comprehensive review of English grammar, particularly targeting those skills necessary to create accurate, varied, and sophisticated sentences as well as strategies for editing coursework for other classes, like ENGL 100! ENGL 40 is a 3-unit course offered online that can be taken while enrolled in ENGL 100 or any other writing-heavy course.

ESL 40 Grammar Review is an excellent course which provides a comprehensive review of English grammar, particularly targeting those skills necessary to create accurate, varied, and sophisticated sentences as well as the tools helpful for editing your own writing.

Would You Like Additional Guidance?

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Veterans
If you want to choose a course that is different from ENGL 100, contact the Veteran Affairs Office to ask about how to access your VA benefits for ENGL 50 and ENGL 52.

Ready to Register for an English Course?

Complete the Self-placement process

If you want to choose to take ENGL 100 alone and you receive an error message in SURF, come to campus to visit one of our three Testing Centers to complete the Self-placement process. Completing this process will allow you to access any ENGL course. If you have questions about this, please contact the testing office.