ESL

1. 1
   noununcountableinitialism

   Initialism of English as a second language.

   Many ESL learners find English idioms harder than grammar rules.

   After moving from Brazil, she spent two years studying ESL.

   Note

   An abbreviation that does much of its work in front of other nouns: ESL learners, an ESL class, ESL materials. Standing alone, it names a subject and stays uncountable, so a student studies ESL, never "an ESL." Its closest neighbors are EFL, broadly the same idea, and EAL. The three are near-synonyms rather than exact equivalents, so whichever one a school or program uses is the one to follow.

2. 2
   noununcountableinitialism

   Initialism of extended shelf life.

   The factory upgraded its packaging to produce ESL juice for export.

   Buyers prefer ESL because the products survive long shipping routes.

   Note

   Here the three letters describe a property of a product, and they usually sit before a noun, as in ESL juice or ESL packaging. They spell exactly the same thing as the language-teaching abbreviation, so the surrounding words have to do the disambiguating. Next to products, packaging or shipping, ESL means extended shelf life, and spelling it out once is the safe course for mixed audiences.

3. 3
   proper nouninitialism

   Initialism of East St. Louis.

   His family has lived in ESL for three generations.

   He drove across the bridge from St. Louis to visit his cousins in ESL.

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