English as a Second Language Center — The Center

Faculty

Vivian Zamel, Professor and Director;

Polly Welsh, Assistant Director

The Center

The ESL Center offers intensive course work in English for students whose native language is not English. These courses focus on listening and speaking, reading, grammar, and writing, and are designed to help prepare ESL students for university-level study. In addition, the center helps advise students and provides other university-related assistance. Students are placed into ESL Center courses after taking a diagnostic test and consulting with an ESL advisor.

While all ESL courses carry credit during the semester they are taken, only ESL 100D carries credit toward graduation.

Courses

ESL 100A
Speaking and Listening I

This course focuses on developing speaking and listening skills that will help students function in their other academic course work. Students participate in small-group work, make oral presentations, and report on first-hand research projects.
4 Lect Hrs, 4 Credits

ESL 100B
Reading Comprehension for College-Level Texts I

This course, which focuses on developing reading comprehension skills for college-level reading, must be taken in conjunction with ESL 100C. Students are introduced to a range of texts and asked to develop and analyze their own reading strategies through class discussion and written responses to the texts they read.
Corequisite: ESL 100C.
4 Lect Hrs, 4 Credits

ESL 100C
Academic Writing I

This course, which focuses on critical thinking and the writing process, must be taken in conjunction with ESL 100B. It encourages the expression of ideas through class discussion and journals and introduces students to more formal academic writing. Students learn to write critically about reading, and to develop strategies of brainstorming, revision and organization. They are evaluated on the basis of a portfolio of written work.
Corequisite: ESL 100B.
4 Lect Hrs, 4 Credits

ESL 100D
Academic Writing II

Like ESL 100C, this course focuses on critical thinking and the writing process. But it builds on and extends this work by the assignment of longer essays that require students to analyze and synthesize the readings. Students are evaluated on the basis of a portfolio of written work.
Corequisite: ESL 100E.
4 Lect Hrs, 4 Credits

ESL 100E
Reading Comprehension for College-Level Texts II

Building on strategies learned in 100B, this course focuses on developing facility with longer, and more complex academic readings.
4 Lect Hrs, 4 Credits

ESL 100F
Speaking and Listening II

This course focuses on developing speaking and listening proficiency in academic study. Students are given practice with academic lectures, note-taking, and oral presentations.
Prerequisite: ESL 100A or Placement.
4 Lect Hrs, 4 Credits