I'm a new teacher this year, teaching an ESL science class. I had my first day with students today and was told upon hire that they'd had 2 years of instructional English/grammar class, but I did assessments today and hardly any of them could even speak a single sentence from the textbook, let alone understand the meaning of the sentence. How do I even begin to teach them subject matter to prepare them for biology next year when their phonetics and oral comprehension are non-existent? Feeling simultaneously discouraged and overwhelmed and not even sure where to start. Partially just venting, partially looking for any advice you can offer. I'm at a public school in the south with a predominately Latino population. I feel like I'm gonna fail to help these kids acquire sufficient English skills to get jobs or go to college :/