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The Office of English Language and Global Training's ESL program offers six levels of instruction from basic to advanced. At each level students take four core courses: reading, writing, grammar, and listening and speaking, as well as supporting courses tailored to support the needs of the students at a particular level. For example, students at Beginning 1 level take a supporting course focused on spelling and handwriting, while students at the advanced level take an academic skill development course. Students heading toward a particular degree, such as Mechanical Engineering or Computer Science, can take a supporting course that focuses on the English language in the context of their field.
Upon arrival, students in the ESL program take a placement test which determine in which of the six levels of the program they will be placed. After registration, students will receive a schedule of classes which comprise of four core classes and one supporting class. Students in the advanced 1 and advanced 2 levels, have the option to take an academic class.
In this course, students are introduced to simple English grammar structures. This course is designed to help students recognize and develop the grammar skills necessary to read, write, speak, and understand basic English. The focus of this class is to introduce students to basic grammatical structures, such as basic parts of speech, simple sentences, possessive adjectives, and basic prepositions of place to support and apply the skills on the other classes.
This is a basic writing course that focuses on teaching students the basic skills to write simple sentences. This course is designed for students to learn to write and apply words within context correctly. The key components in this writing course are basic sentences, subject-verb agreement, structure, spelling of high frequency words, and basic punctuation and capitalization.
This course is designed to develop basic English-speaking skills. Students should be able to express themselves in basic English language with comprehensible pronunciation and simple grammar structures. Key aspects of this course include following basic oral directions, asking for or providing information about self and others, and presenting brief introductions.
This is a basic reading course and is the beginning stage of helping students learn to read the English language. This course has three reading development parts from pre-reading into comprehensive reading. At the end of this course, students will be able to recognize the English alphabet, decode some familiar and unfamiliar vocabulary words, decode complete simple sentences, and comprehend basic content from a level appropriate reading passage. Key aspects of this course include answering yes/no questions about a reading, identifying subject and verb in sentences, and recognizing basic sight words.
This course is designed to develop students’ grammar skills to understand and communicate in basic English. The focus of this class is to give opportunities for the students to develop understanding of foundational grammatical structures. Key elements include declarative sentences, simple present and past tense of common verbs, basic understanding of present progressive and future tense and prepositions of time.
This is a foundational writing course that teaches students to write short messages. This course is designed for students to learn to write in complete simple sentences with minimal errors and develop simple paragraph structures using high frequency words with minimal errors in spelling. The key components in this writing course are requests and simple descriptions.
This course is designed to develop listening and basic speaking skills in English. Students will develop their listening skills through practice with simplified conversation and narratives. The focus of this course is to develop students’ ability to understand main ideas, follow instructions and ask for and respond to simple needs.
This is a foundation reading course aimed to help students to learn to decode and read words in English while expanding their working vocabulary related to experiences. At the end of this course, students will be able to recognize and decode basic sentences, explain meaning from simplified material, follow specific written instructions, and read simple texts of at least four paragraphs.
This course will help students strengthen their understanding of form, meaning and use of grammatical structures, and their application in various settings and contexts. It will introduce students to count and non-count nouns and their quantifiers, possessive nouns, adjectives, and other modifiers. The simple and continuous present and past tenses are further developed, and future tense is introduced.
This writing course focuses on expanding students’ writing skills from basic to intermediate. This course is designed for students to learn to write an expanded paragraph and describe an experience in detail using appropriate sequence in form of personal letters and mini essays. The key components in this writing course are extended paragraphs and mini essays that incorporate familiar experiences, general vocabulary, and sequential terms.
This course is designed to bring students’ listening and speaking abilities to everyday conversation. Students will be expected to participate in planned conversations with classmates, give short 2–3-minute planned presentations, and listen to short videos showing basic comprehension of main ideas and detailed questions. Students will be expected to discuss agreement or disagreement in various topics.
This reading course helps students expand their working vocabulary and begin to identify important information in reading. This course will introduce students to different types of texts. At the end of this course, students will be able to identify main ideas, chronological order, predict vocabulary in context and analyze various story elements in a level-appropriate text. At this level, students will be introduced to various genres, such as compare and contrast, cause-effect, fact -opinion, and problem solution.
This course is designed to help students integrate form, meaning, and use of modals, simple past, and present perfect and adjective clauses in the four skills, as well as begin to recognize them in academic discourse. This course will provide students with the opportunities to practice switching between tenses and add nuances to their own discourse.
This course aims to develop students’ ability to write simple connected text, using general and academic vocabulary, moving from paragraphs to 5-paragraph essays. Writing process skills such as brainstorming, drafting, and revising are reinforced. At the end of this course, students will be able to write essays on familiar topics with basic introduction, body and conclusion using simple complex and compound sentences.
This course is designed to enhance speaking and listening skills of authentic listening passages. Students will learn through lectures, structured discussions on topics assigned by the instructor, impromptu and prepared speeches, and video or audiotaping of speeches. Students will begin to focus on speech patterns, register, and effective strategies for communication and comprehension. Note taking skills, using their own notes to summarize and communicate the information gleaned from lectures, and creating questions from speeches will be expanded.
This course aims to introduce students to the reading and comprehension of authentic texts. Building upon prior knowledge of reading strategies, the course will emphasize the development of note taking skills to analyze organization, sentence types and vocabulary in context. At the end of this course, students should be able to read and show basic comprehension of some authentic texts.
This course will support students in integrating meaning, form, and use at an approaching level of academic discourse. This course reviews basic structures such as perfect verb tenses and introduces more advanced grammatical structures, such as gerunds and infinitives, passive voice, and adverb clauses to support all four language skills. It will employ activities in listening, speaking, reading, and writing to practice and develop grammatical accuracy.
This course prepares students to translate their critical thinking skills into writing, choosing appropriate genres. It also focuses on writing 5-paragraph essays with academic vocabulary and varied sentence structure. Students are expected to apply the appropriate style for the selected audience. Research and citation skills, including quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing are introduced and developed. Students are working towards being more independent writers, showing the ability to self-edit and revise their work.
This course develops students’ academic level of listening and speaking ability in English, with a continued aim on college classroom applications. The focus is on specific language for social, professional, and particularly academic purposes. At this level, students are expected to plan structured and sustained discussions and present 5-8-minute speeches.
This course introduces students to specialized articles from various academic themes with the purpose of strengthening their academic reading comprehension. Students are expected to show their comprehension of main ideas and details and infer and interpret meaning. Academic vocabulary development, context clues, paraphrasing, summarizing, genre distinctions, and other reading strategies are emphasized. This course aims to prepare students to read at an approaching level of general university courses.
This course is designed to support students in understanding and applying more complex grammatical structures such as conditional, subjunctive, and reported speech in all four skills. Form, meaning, and use will be integrated at a higher academic discourse level, and different modes and tones will be engaging. The ultimate aim is the development of grammatical accuracy in speaking and writing. This course reviews and expands the use of more complex sentence structures by addressing different modes and tones.
This course is designed to improve writing skills at the highest academic level. The goal of this course is to prepare students to write research-based assignments to better participate in undergraduate and graduate college courses. Students collect, analyze, and synthesize evidence to write a research paper, and research-based essays. Varied sentence structures, academic and specialized vocabulary and writing independence in revisions are expected at this level.
This course will focus on the development of listening and speaking skills at the highest ESL level. Through recorded and live academic lectures, interviews, and presentations, students will gather information, take notes, and outline main ideas and supporting details. Students will be expected to conduct discussions, present prepared speeches, and speak naturally with little or no hesitation. Organization and synthesizing of information will be developed. This course brings students as close as possible to the academic environment in a university setting.
This course is designed to develop the students' academic reading comprehension of various forms of written English. Students will develop scanning strategies for main ideas and critically analyze and evaluate and synthesize information in reading materials. Students will continue to build on strategies for managing larger texts, increasing speed and comprehension, while expanding their academic vocabulary.
Students will be introduced to a variety of different learning strategies to maximize in, and out-of-class learning and improve overall academic performance. Emphasis is placed on the core modalities of reading and writing. Developing and maintaining good personal and study habits, as well as other class load and exam management techniques will be explored.
This course is designed to develop skills essential for higher education success. The primary focus is developing comprehension and retention of academic language and routine. Major topics include professional communication, vocabulary growth, learning/teaching styles, note taking, and critical thinking skills.
In this course, students will learn about phonemic awareness and accuracy, stress patterns, intonation, and rhythm with extensive practice. This course will present students with an acute awareness of how vocal sound is produced, how the anatomy and breath support strong sound, and how the articulators can sharpen the pronunciation of the English language. Students will focus on sounds in isolation, sounds in words and sounds in sentences as well as sentence stress and intonation in connected discourse. Students will also be able to identify and improve their own individual pronunciation issues.
This course is designed to develop students’ phonics skills necessary for academic reading and writing. Students will be introduced to letter sounds and word patterns. In conjunction, students will develop their skills in spelling and handwriting.
This course is designed for students who have already completed all the other cross-level skills or have already mastered these skills and would like to develop in a specific area of interest. Under the instructor’s guidance, they will develop a learning plan, learning objectives and goals, and they will be learning independently and staying on track by checking in periodically.
This course is designed to develop students’ skills to increase their vocabulary by using specific strategies such as understanding pre-fixes, suffixes, and roots. These elements will aid students in inferring meaning by understanding the general context of the text thus improving their comprehension of various types of reading.
This course will focus on the various modes of communication skills and nuances of the English language that are necessary as students transition from the ESL program into their academic course of study and identify what makes effective academic reading, writing, and thinking as well as overall appropriate communication skills required for daily interaction with peers, colleagues and others.
