In this course students develop skills in identifying the main ideas of conversations, lectures, and other spoken texts and learn to recognize and understand stressed and reduced sounds in words and sentences. Learners also practice figuring out the meanings of new words from the context, making inferences from what they hear, and basic note-taking. They also develop skills for participating successfully in social conversations and academic discussions, as well as improve their pronunciation. Through intensive reading, students increase their reading speed and improve comprehension of material in short passages and texts by practicing a variety of strategies. Extensive reading emphasizes reading for enjoyment through novels and biographies.
Students periodically report and record their progress in extensive reading and reading speed.
This course helps students to develop their academic writing and grammar skills. They learn to use grammar structures correctly in meaningful spoken and written communication. Besides working on formal writing, students learn to write fluently by keeping a journal. The study of cross-cultural communication for English as a second language in the context of the United States. While raising awareness of how communication takes place in students' own cultures, the course provides information and practice for a wide variety of culturally determined aspects of oral communication appropriate for US culture.