Article by ELI Staff | September 3, 2020
As more and more international students pursue graduate education in the United States, the University of Delaware English Language Institute has developed its hybrid academic English courses to ensure that students are well prepared for studies in their graduate programs. In graduate school, understanding academic lectures and having advanced English language skills are essential. Professors will expect students to take notes effectively and to participate in formal discussions, deliver presentations, as well as engage in informal conversations with a satisfactory degree of language proficiency. This course provides students ample opportunity to practice and improve these important listening and speaking skills.
The ELI’s Listening and Speaking Graduate V course gives students a solid foundation in learning how to take notes effectively on lectures and how to speak confidently in a variety of situations and contexts. Students who take this course receive intensive instruction on how to recognize a lecture’s organization and development, which will aid them in taking notes. Students listen to authentic lectures on a range of topics within the humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The use of authentic lectures in the course replicates the actual college classroom experience.
In Listening and Speaking Graduate V, students will also learn how to effectively engage in a variety of speaking contexts. Formal discussions about academic topics allow students to research and discuss current issues and express their opinions about them in small groups. In addition, intensive grammar and pronunciation instruction is given to help students improve their spoken grammar and intelligibility.
Listening and Speaking Graduate V’s hybrid format allows students to study asynchronously and synchronously. Asynchronously, students can watch and take notes on lectures, study grammar, and practice pronunciation using self-paced learning modules in our online platform. These skills are then practiced in our live, synchronous classes, where students can ask their instructor any questions that they may have.
Listening and Speaking Graduate V—whether it is in a face-to-face, online, or hybrid format—prepares graduate bound students to succeed in their academic studies.