This course is a group-work discussion course suitable for students with a TOEFL Paper Based Test score of up to 459, or for students who have successfully completed the Gateway English course. Each lesson will take on a task-based approach to English language learning, and each classroom task is (1) goal-oriented, (2) content focused, (3) has a real outcome, and (4) reflects real-life language use and language needs.
While this course is organized around activities and tasks rather than grammar or vocabulary, it should help students develop essential word building tools such as understanding collocations, word forms, and connotation.
During the lessons for Task-Based Discussion, students are given preparation for the task through different activities: the target language of the lesson is presented and practiced, there are pronunciation exercises on an area related to the target language, and finally students will practice target language through a consequential task, which enables students to practice language in a meaningful context.
All homework and assignments for this course will be done through Moodle or uploaded to Moodle, so students will require access to a computer and the internet. On occasion, students may be required to bring a computer to class.