Program Details
- Students receive 23 hours of intensive academic English study per week (four levels)
- Instruction focuses on Intensive Academic English instruction in Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing at the Intermediate through Advanced Levels. (No classes are offered for Beginners.)
- The program includes eight 5-week modules each year:
Three 5-week modules in fall (A, B, C)
Three 5-week modules in spring (D, E, F)
Two 5-week modules in summer (G, H)
ELI Fall & Spring Course Information
Attendance:
Students are expected to be in class every day, on time, and prepared to work. Students who are regularly late or miss several hours of class each session will be warned twice and then may be dropped from the program.
Course Descriptions
The following courses are open to non-native speakers of English who intend to improve academic English skills in order to enter a degree program. The English Language Institute (ELI) of Wisconsin Lutheran College offers these non-credit intensive courses to full/part-time ESL students for five hours daily (M-Th), and until noon on Friday, or twenty-three hours each week. Instruction is given in four levels: Intermediate, High-Intermediate, Advanced, and Advanced Integration.
Intermediate Level Courses:
- ELI/L51 Intermediate Listening
- Students will hear and reproduce American English sounds, words, and phrases. Students listen to a variety of audio presentations on topics of interest, learning to hear stress and intonation patterns and to understand statements and requests. As the course progresses, students build confidence in listening for details as well as main ideas, and develop the ability to summarize what they hear.
- ELI/S52 Intermediate Speaking
- This course trains students in communication skills for use in everyday situations, including phone usage, polite conversation, asking and answering questions, and asking for directions. Class instruction includes a great deal of role-play, small-group activities, and oral presentations. As skills improve, students will speak in a wider variety of situations, with more emphasis on pronunciation, intonation, and grammar. Active participation is required.
- ELI/R53 Intermediate Reading
- In this course students are taught reading strategies such as previewing, predicting, and using context for meaning. Materials include academic texts, stories, news articles, and abridged classic works of literature. As students progress, they learn to skim, scan, make inferences, and form opinions about readings which increase slightly in difficulty.
- ELI/W54 Intermediate Writing
- In this course students learn to write more complex sentences according to basic grammar rules, and will compose well-organized paragraphs with topic and supporting sentences. Students practice correct use of punctuation, capitalization, spelling, usage of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verb tenses. Advancing in skill, students practice various writing forms, including narrative, descriptive, and expository paragraphs, journals, or letters. At the finish of the course students grasp how to write a three-paragraph essay.
- ELI/G55 Intermediate Grammar
- This course complements all other skill courses at this level by providing a deeper understanding of the rules and usage of grammar in both speech and writing, especially sound use of verb forms and basic sentence/paragraph construction.
High-Intermediate Level Courses:
- ELI/L61 High-Intermediate Listening
- This course introduces students to note-taking on a variety of subject matter, increasing ability to understand main ideas and important details, to form inferences, to grasp cultural idioms, and to identify American forms of humor and sarcasm as they listen.
- ELI/S62 High-Intermediate Speaking
- Oral presentations and discussion cover various themes; education, class, race, family, government, sports, and current events. From this exposure to culture and authentic language practice, students become more confident in English communication and an understanding of American body language. This class includes song or drama to aid students in learning the rhythm of spoken English.
- ELI/R63 High-Intermediate Reading
- Students Students continue working with reading strategies such as scanning for facts and skimming for ideas, guessing meaning from context, making inferences, and separating fact from opinion. Moving from ESL reading material to authentic classroom texts, students improve reading speed and comprehension through use of short stories, news articles, novel/film comparison, and content textbooks.
- ELI/W64 High-Intermediate Writing
- Students learn to develop a written draft into a unified, coherent, well-supported five-paragraph college-style essay that includes clearly written sentences of varying complexity. Exercises include process essays of two to three drafts each and in-class timed essays. Students may also write summaries and paraphrases of articles, reactions to opinion essays, and personal reflections.
- ELI/G65 High-Intermediate Grammar
- This course complements all other skill courses at this level by providing a deeper understanding of the rules and usage of grammar in both speech and writing, especially in construction of more complex sentences and correct use of additional verb forms.
Advanced Level Courses:
- ELI/L83 Advanced Listening
- Students learn the ability to listen to a variety of extended presentations, learning to pick out key ideas, essential details, and organizational patterns. Content includes guest speakers or recorded lectures. Students are required to observe and report on several college lecture classes and to note differing lecture styles. Students learn to take sufficient notes for later comprehension and study.
- ELI/S85 Advanced Speaking
- This course helps students to continue to build confidence in speaking by participating in class discussions and debates and by preparing individual oral presentations. Students learn conversation strategies such as agreeing and disagreeing, interrupting, and asking for clarification. Students listen to tapes and videos on topics ranging from environment to abortion, discuss the topics, and support their opinions with research.
- ELI/R87 Advanced Reading
- In this class students are exposed to the types of reading that they will encounter in college courses. Readings include college textbook material, newspaper and journal articles, academic essays, short stories, poetry, and an unabridged novel. Students continue practicing the skills of drawing inferences, summarizing, and building the speed and comprehension needed for testing situations, such as with the TOEFL or IELTS.
- ELI/W89 Advanced Writing and Research
- This college-style composition course requires the use of a variety of writing skills to write short essays, answer essay questions on academic content areas, and complete a 12-15 page research paper. Skills exercised include brainstorming, outlining, researching, drafting, editing, taking/using notes accurately, and constructing a bibliography. Students research, analyze, and evaluate issues, learning to summarize, paraphrase, quote, and document sources.
- ELI/G89 Advanced Grammar
- This course complements all other skill courses at this level by providing a deeper understanding of the rules and usage of grammar in both speech and writing, by use of advanced phrasing and more complex sentence and paragraph construction.
Advanced Integration:
- ELI/99 Advanced Integration
- In this capstone course, all skills from listening, speaking, reading, writing, and grammar will be integrated to simulate actual college course-work in a variety of subject areas. In addition to in-class lecture, discussion, reading, and writing assignments, there will be short quizzes, full-length tests using a variety of questioning techniques, and a research paper. Final work will be evaluated by three members of college faculty and must earn a grade of B- or better before the student may pass out of the program.
Testing
Global Language Educational Service (GLES) tests our students for placement at the beginning of all modules and at intervals throughout the year. Tests focus on skill progression from Listening (passing score is 73) to Reading (73) to Writing (70).
In addition, ELI uses a variety of professionally designed tests to measure student progress in various skills throughout the modules.