Basic English is for learners who are new to the English language. Courses help build beginning reading and communication skills. Foundational skills are taught to help prepare students to function in everyday situations that might require English. Topics students include the English alphabet (symbols and sounds), numbers, how to fill out forms with personal information, to identify family members, and basic health terms. Students will also learn how to form basic sentences and questions.
Academic Reading and Writing
Beginning reading helps students to develop basic fluency in reading and text processing skills, while beginning writing focuses on learning grammatical structures and using this knowledge within the writing context.
Advancing to intermediate reading, students will develop, broaden, and practice vocabulary in context. The skills of prediction, comprehension of main ideas, details, and inferences are emphasized at this level. Writing, at the intermediate level develops skills needed to produce coherent essays in American English. Focus is on prewriting activities, revising, editing, rhetorical formats, sentence structure, and grammar.
Advanced reading develops strategies that help the reader interact with texts and construct meaning. Advanced thinking skills are developed through inference, interpretation, evaluation and analysis. There is continued focus on vocabulary development and essay organization.
Academic Listening and Speaking
Beginning listening and speaking devolps vocabulary and fluency by discussing various topics. Some activities to develop these skills include listening to podcasts and videos, role playing, and individual presentations. The student will also be introduced to the English phonetic system while learning simple common daily expressions. Spoken communication and active listening skills necessary for college level study are developed in the advanced course. Speaking activities include interviews, debates, group presentations. Students read and discuss texts dealing with current events and engage in classroom discussion concerning these topics.
At the beginning levels, students will learn fundamental grammatical concepts and basic pronunciation. Students will also learn to give simple requests and to use questions in order to acquire new information. At the intermediate to advanced levels, students will become more proficient in the use of verb tenses and learn to examine the various types of speech to communicate with an increasing level of competence.
Advanced skills in academic reading, writing, listening, speaking are required for enrollment in specialty courses. Courses in this category include Advanced Academic Listening & Notetaking, Pronunciation courses, and Accent Reduction & Presentation Skills.