Intensive English Program
Courses meet 4 hours daily, Mondays - Fridays, for 5 week terms (20 hours each week). Lab hours are optional and are available outside of class time. The full program requires from 30 - 55 weeks to complete depending on student placement and objectives.
Pre-Elementary is a special program for people with no or very little English. The course helps students to learn basic phonics, basic verbs (to be, to have) and to use them to form sentences. Reading, writing, speaking and listening are a part of the course. This course may be repeated if needed before moving to Elementary A.
Elementary A is for people who have studied English before but who need to develop their ability to understand and use the English they learned in school. Students in this level practice all areas of English communication: speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing and discussion in an increasingly integrated format.
Elementary B takes the student beyond the foundations of speaking and understanding to work on more advanced structures, such as adverb clauses of time and compound sentences. Students practice these structures and learn to recognize and use them in reading and writing as well as speaking. Discussion of reading and writing projects are encouraged as practices are integrated more and more.
Intermediate A, B & C give students practice in more advanced English in an integrated manner: speaking, listening, reading, discussion, and writing are taught and practiced as related skills. In each 5-week term of this sequence, students work with more complex structures, learn to write compositions using such rhetorical organizational forms as comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and classification, etc. They also learn discussion skills, such as asking for opinions of other students, interrupting, asking for clarification, giving opinions and clarifying ideas.
After completing the Basic Program, students are encouraged to study in our Advanced Communications courses where they develop fluency and confidence in the use of English while practicing with real materials and situations: watching and discussing television or video programs, visiting and observing actual courtroom trials, attending television talk shows, visiting organizations and businesses, and interviewing American people in fields of interest to each student.
Individuals who are interested in attending a college or university also study in the College Preparation courses. In College Preparation I, a ten-week course, students listen to videotaped lectures and practice note-taking and listening comprehension. They learn how to read college level textbooks and how to take examinations on the information studied in textbooks and lectures. They also learn how to write college level compositions and essay examinations to prepare them for taking a College Writing 101 class. In addition, they do practice exercises and vocabulary development to prepare for the TOEFL. College Preparation II, given for five or ten weeks, follows College Preparation I. It prepares students for university and graduate studies and emphasizes how to write a research paper. Students also continue to listen to lectures and practice note-taking, read college level texts and increase their TOEFL scores.
