The course emphasizes the development of summarizing and paraphrasing skills. In addition, they complete three independent study units of their own choosing that may include vocabulary development, reading improvement, writing practice, or computer skills. Grammar study for this advanced course is connected with a full-length fiction or nonfiction bestseller that students read. Students keep weekly journals in which they write about what they are reading, become familiar with their own common grammar errors, and learn how to find and correct them. Oral Skills .
Instruction emphasizes student participation in a wide variety of speaking activities.
Group discussion is addressed through cooperative problem solving, negotiation, and decision making exercises. Individual cooperative problem-solving, negotiation, and decision making exercises. Individual oral presentations focus on building personal confidence as well as skill. Listening skills, including fast natural speech and those appropriate for attending formal, academic lectures, are practiced. Preparatory activities involve previewing vocabulary and, when appropriate, listening to introductory presentations of similar topics by the instructor in anticipation of a guest lecturer.