Academic English / TOEFL iBT
Level A: 8 hours per week
Level B and C: 12 hours per week
Academic English is introduced at an Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced Levels (A, B, and C). Its focus is an essential academic language skills development, such as identifying main ideas and important details, paraphrasing, outlining, summarizing, classifying, comparing and contrasting ideas and concepts. Students learn to process new information efficiently, analyze and synthesize listening and reading materials and then complete the type of independent and integrated tasks they will likely encounter on the TOEFL iBT.
Hands-on Projects
Beginning: 4 hours per week
Level A: 4 hours
Students are encouraged to work in pairs or groups in order to create and develop something new and unique, learning to use English in a wide range of realistic contexts. Each project has a clear goal. For example, students may create their own fun quiz or a class web site or design a new outfit for a fashion show.
American Cultural Experience
Beginning: 4 hours per week
Level A, B, and C: 4 hours per week
American Cultural Experience is introduced at Levels A, B, and C. Students learn about and enhance their understanding of the American values and customs through discussions and dramatic techniques. Students act out ‘decision dramas’ that pose a problem and need a solution to be found. Cultural skills and conversations generated by the students in the process help them as newcomers avoid embarrassing situations and deepen their understanding of the American culture.
Community Project
Beginning: 4 hours per week
Level A, B, and C: 4 hours per week
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
- Confucius
Community projects are introduced at Levels A, B, and C. Students take charge of the learning process and connect the classroom ‘world’ with the ‘real’ world. For example, in Unit One of the Academic English, students learn about a dramatic situation when a family-owned video store is being pushed out of business by a powerful nationwide chain store. In the community project class, students personalize and re-live the situation from within. They create their own props for Captain Video Store, movie posters, using interactive online art, and develop characters of the staff and customers. The project reaches its climax when students invite the owner of the local video store and his staff for a discussion and then stage their own skit.
Afternoon Self-Directed Program
Beginning: 3 hours per week
Level A, B, and C: 3 hours per week
From the start, we want to promote cultural immersion and continuous language learning. After the regular morning classes, students work on their pronunciation and field/research assignments, practice TOEFL online, watch movies and participate in the Book Buddies’ meetings! Students are required to take minimum one non-credit evening class of their choice.
Adjunct Content Class
Level C: (arranged individually with each class)
The course is offered to the ELI graduate students concurrently enrolled in the regular classes to facilitate their comprehension of the academic content. Students develop study skills with the aim of completing academic assignments independently and pass the tests successfully. In collaboration with content-area instructors, ELI instructors make necessary modifications to materials to facilitate the meaning-making process. These modifications may include concept maps, handouts, yes/no, true/false, either/or questions as well as the use of visuals, stressing and repeating important points, modeling, and collaborative peer activities.
Four-Week Intensive Conversational English
Beginning: 12 hours per week
Level: A, B, and C: 12 hours per week
The focus of this program is to develop English fluency and have fun! A flexible conversational course offers a combination of hands-on projects, chanting, singing, storytelling activities, and theatre games. Students of all language levels are encouraged to work in pairs and groups in order to create and develop something new and unique, at the same time learning to use English in a wide range of realistic contexts. Create a fun quiz or a class web site or design a new outfit for a fashion show – these are just a few examples of engaging activities that this course can offer. Additionally, students will be introduced to American Cultural Experience and Community Project. In the Afternoon / Self-Directed Program, students will be grouped with the same level full-term ELI students to complete weekly Field Projects.
Five-Week Intensive TOEFL Instruction
Level B+: 20 hours per week
Twenty hours of rigorous practice in listening, reading, speaking, and writing offers ample opportunities for students to upgrade their test-taking skills and be prepared for TOEFL iBT. Students will develop essential Academic language skills and communicative competence while familiarizing themselves with the type of content, questions, and tasks they may encounter on the TOEFL iBT. In the Afternoon / Self-Directed Program, students will be grouped with the same level full-term ELI students to complete weekly Field Projects.
Two-Week Intensive TOEFL Writing Course
Level B+: 12 hours per week
Twelve hours of rigorous writing practice per week provides ample opportunities for students to upgrade their writing skills to be successful on the TOEFL iBT. Warm-up listening and reading activities introduce the general context for writing. After an introduction, students complete independent and integrated writing tasks, the same type of tasks they are likely to encounter on TOEFL iBT. An independent task requires students to express their opinion and support it with examples or explanation. Integrated tasks involve listening to and reading about different aspects of the same topic and then synthesize information from both sources in a summary report. Additionally, students will be introduced to American Cultural Experience and Community Project. In the Afternoon / Self-Directed Program, students will be grouped with the same level full-term ELI students to complete weekly Field Projects.
Field Projects
In order to graduate to the next level or complete ELI program, the students (A, B, and C Level) must satisfactorily complete fieldwork/research projects. The projects include interviews, surveys, and reports. They can be completed individually or in groups and submitted as written paragraphs/essays, PowerPoint presentations, brochures, etc. You'll explore a topic that expands the material you study in your class, then collect information from the available resources (talking to people in your community, reading magazines in the library or on the Intranet), and finally, post your project on ELI class web page.