Course Descriptions—Interpretation of the Academic Achievement Scale

ELI 051 Academic Reading:

By the end of this course, students will be able to understand readings of at least 800 words of academic text with authentic grammar and vocabulary. They will be able to predict content; scan for specific information; identify thesis and paragraph main ideas; understand sequence, comparisons, problems and solutions, and cause and effect; recognize fact, theory, and opinion; and infer meaning. They will be able to annotate and outline the text to highlight these elements. They will be able to write critical responses. They will be able to guess academic vocabulary meaning from context, and know and apply new vocabulary.

ELI 052 Oral Communication:

By the end of this course, students will be able to speak with very good fluency to express themselves on academic topics. They will be able to have conversations and discussions in groups, using turn-taking strategies. They will be able to give presentations of at least 7 minutes with partners and individually, using good body language, advanced transition signals, and visual aids including PowerPoint slides. They will be able to describe, explain, and debate using sufficient supporting ideas. They will be able to use very good pronunciation of word sounds and sentence stress and intonation. Students will apply listening skills to understand classroom language and recordings of academic conversations, discussions, and lectures. They will understand authentic speech, including interruptions and digressions. They will be able to answer questions on the conversations and organize their own notes on the lectures by listening for main ideas and specific details, definitions, signposting, and by inferring meaning. Students will know vocabulary in the context of the recordings and apply it in speaking activities.

ELI 053 Grammar in Use

By the end of this course, students will expand their knowledge of the form, meaning, and pronunciation of grammatical forms including verb tenses, passive, clauses, comparatives, ‘it’ construction, modals, and functional language for various academic genre. Students will be able to apply this knowledge in speaking in groups and individually on academic topics, including in presentations, and writing academic essays of at least 250 words.

ELI 054 Academic Writing

By the end of this course, students will be able to write academic expository essays of over 500 words that are organized in a standard format, with an introduction (with background and thesis), body paragraphs (with topic sentences), and conclusion, including writing an outline. They will be able to include sources that they quote, paraphrase, summarize, and cite in MLA or APA format, as well as evaluate the credibility of sources. They will be able to use a variety of verb tenses, sentence structures, and language for the essay content. They will be able to revise their work based on feedback and self-editing.