ESL CORE COURSES
Click on the course name to see its description.
Each course includes 60 hours of classroom instruction.

ESL ELECTIVE COURSES
Click on the course name to see its description.
These courses are offered only in the fall and in the spring, not in the summer.
Each course includes 30 hours of classroom instruction.
Not every course is offered every semester.
Full-time students take two elective courses per semester.
300-level electives are open to advanced (level 3) and high-advanced (level 4) students.

ESL COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

ESL 102: Elementary Grammar (60 hours - core)
This course focuses on developing a solid core of basic English grammar skills for beginning learners of English. In particular, it covers the structure of declarative, interrogative and imperative sentences; simple present, past and future forms as well as present continuous; pronominal forms; possessive constructions (have-possessives, genitives, of-possessives); nominal plural formation; simple conjunctions.

ESL 122: Elementary Pronunciation (60 hours - core)
This course focuses on developing students' ability to recognize and produce vowels and consonants of North American English, to recognize and correctly interpret basic intonation patterns in a variety of sentence types, and to apply letter-to-sound rules when reading aloud.

ESL 162: Elementary Speaking and Listening (60 hours - core)
This course aims at developing students' ability to handle a variety of basic social situations (introductions, ordering meals, asking directions, making purchases, taking & leaving simple messages, etc.). Students will learn to tell simple stories and describe pictures in simple sentences, and to understand simple narratives. They will also increase their vocabulary.

ESL 182: Elementary Reading and Writing (60 hours - core)
This course focuses on developing basic reading and writing skills. After completing the course, students are expected to be able to write short messages and descriptions; fill out simple forms; apply basic principles of capitalization and punctuation; read simplified short texts on familiar topics and answer factual questions about the reading; scan to locate information in text; categorize vocabulary (synonyms, antonyms). Students will also increase their vocabulary.

ESL 193: Introduction to Debate (30 hours - elective)
Introduction to Debate is an elementary-level elective ESL course designed to help students build strong conversation skills through a variety of problem-solving activities and discussion of controversial issues.

ESL 194: Fluency Through Video I (30 hours - elective)
The Fluency Through Video I is an elementary-level elective ESL course. In this course, students will follow the adventures of six friends from different countries who are now living, studying, and working in exciting New York City. The course is designed to improve the students' listening comprehension skills and help them become confident and fluent speakers of English. Useful cultural points and colloquial language will be explained throughout the course.

ESL 195: Vocabulary Development I (30 hours - elective)
Vocabulary Development I is an elective designed for students at the elementary level. In this course, students will learn and apply new vocabulary by associating words with colorful and engaging visual images. This approach encourages students to associate words with meanings rather than reverting to their native language for a definition. Vocabulary Development I uses a variety of engaging communicative activities and problem solving exercises.

ESL 196: Introduction to American History (30 hours - elective)
Introduction to American History is an elective designed for elementary and low-intermediate ESL students. This content-based course is an introduction to the history of the United States, from its earliest days to the American Civil War (1865). The course has a significant reading and writing component. Students will learn new words, write a journal, and practice academic skills such as reading bar graphs and maps.

ESL 197: Life Skills (30 hours - elective)
Life Skills is an elective designed for elementary and low-intermediate ESL students. This course teaches students the necessary life skills that they will need in order to function successfully and competently in an English-speaking society. Students will learn essential vocabulary and strategies to communicate effectively at home, at work, in school, and in their communities.

ESL 202: Intermediate Grammar (60 hours - core)
This course reviews basic word order and simple tenses, and introduces the students to a variety of higher-level grammatical constructions, with a particular focus on developing the students' ability to use simple, continuous and perfective forms; complex & compound sentences; modal verbs; rules of capitalization; rules of terminal and internal punctuation.

ESL 210: The American Short Story I (30 hours - elective)
The American Short Story I is an elective designed for ESL students who are at the intermediate level. Students will read about 14 short stories by American writers and learn about the various elements of short fiction such as plot, character, setting, etc. Through the study and discussion of short stories, students will improve their vocabulary, reading, critical thinking, and public presentation skills.

ESL 215: Business English I (30 hours - elective)
Business English is an elective designed for ESL students who are at the intermediate level of proficiency. Students will focus on improving their listening and speaking skills in key areas of business communication: taking part in meetings, telephoning, negotiating, and socializing.

ESL 216: Conversation Strategies (30 hours - elective)
Conversation Strategies is an elective designed for intermediate ESL students. This course offers students the opportunity to improve their conversation skills by learning to recognize and use a variety of subtle language cues that native speakers of English employ in order to understand a person's intentions and to achieve desired outcomes.

ESL 217: Introduction to American Culture I (30 hours - elective)
Introduction to American Culture I is an elective designed for intermediate ESL students. This is a content-based course covering various aspects of American culture such as famous people and places, important historical events, and traditions. The linguistic component of the course focuses on vocabulary and reading skills. The course will culminate with individual oral presentations or exhibits focusing on specific aspects of American culture.

ESL 218: Introduction to Public Speaking (30 hours - elective)
Introduction to Public Speaking is an intermediate-level elective focusing on the skills and the language needed for self-expression. The students learn to explain, support, and organize their own opinions, and to examine, question and refute opposing points of view. The course focuses on developing critical thinking, listening, and speaking skills; furthermore, the strategies learned in this course will also help students become more effective writers.

ESL 222: Intermediate Pronunciation (60 hours - core)
This course focuses on improving students' ability to recognize and produce vowels and consonants of North American English, to identify and express meaning change through intonation, to distinguish between stressed and unstressed syllables in monosyllabic words, and to use reductions, linking, and contractions.

ESL 262: Intermediate Speaking and Listening (60hours - core)
This course aims at developing students' ability to make simple oral presentations, retell simple stories, participate in face-to-face conversations on topics going beyond the most immediate needs, identify the main ideas and factual information in level-appropriate listening passages. Students will also increase their vocabulary.

ESL 282: Intermediate Reading and Writing (60 hours - core)
The writing component of this course introduces the students to the North American paragraph structure (topic-ideas with support-conclusion; various types of logical organization). Students will conduct basic Internet searches and use word-processing software to write, edit, and format written assignments. The reading component of this course focuses on developing the students' ability to read a variety of materials on familiar and unfamiliar topics; to identify main ideas and factual information; to identify transition words to understand relationships between ideas; to identify pronoun antecedents; and to interpret graphs, charts, and maps. Students will also increase their vocabulary.

ESL 294: Fluency Through Video II (30 hours - elective)
The Fluency Through Video II is an intermediate-level elective ESL course. In this course, students will follow the adventures of six friends from different countries who are now living, studying, and working in exciting New York City. The course is designed to improve the students' listening comprehension skills and help them become confident and fluent speakers of English. Useful cultural points and colloquial language will be explained throughout the course.

ESL 295: Drama in English (30 hours - elective)
Drama in English is an elective designed for intermediate ESL students. Through the study of short dramatic works, students will improve their skills in vocabulary, conversation, writing, listening, and reading. Students will rehearse and perform scenes and monologues and in so doing practice their pronunciation and speaking skills. Through the study and performance of drama, students will gain confidence in using English, in working collaboratively with others, and in public speaking. The course will culminate with a project in which students will write and perform original monologues or short dramatic scenes.

ESL 302: Advanced Grammar (60 hours - core)
This course includes a thorough review of the English tense and aspect system as well as basic principles of capitalization and punctuation. The course focuses on complex and compound sentences (including relative clauses and embedded questions), conditional forms; passive, gerunds, infinitives, and perfective forms with modal verbs.

ESL 310: The American Short Story II (30 hours - elective)
The American Short Story II is an elective designed for ESL students who are at the advanced level and above. Students will read about 14 short stories by American writers and learn about the various elements of short fiction such as plot, character, setting, etc. Through the study and discussion of short stories, students will improve their vocabulary, reading, critical thinking, and public presentation skills.

ESL 311: Creative Writing (30 hours - elective)
This is an elective course designed for ESL students who are at the advanced level and above. In this course, students are introduced to elements and techniques used in two major types of creative writing: poetry and the short story. Students will be exposed to a variety of authentic works and will work on exploring their own literary voice while paying special attention to clear and accurate usage of the English language.

ESL 314: Business English II (30 hours - elective)
Business English II is an elective designed for advanced and college prep level ESL students. The goal of the course is to familiarize the students with the basic communication modes of the modern American business world. The course includes extensive reading assignments and familiarizes students with basic forms of business writing such as memos, reports, invitations, resumes, letters, and agendas.

ESL 315: Current Events (30 hours - elective)
Current Events is an elective designed for ESL students at the advanced and high-advanced level of instruction. Students will read recent news stories, participate in debates, and learn to defend their point of view in writing.

ESL 316: Introduction to American Culture II (30 hours - elective)
Introduction to American Culture is an elective designed for ESL students at the advanced level and above. The course explores traditional basic American values and how these values affect various institutions and aspects of life in the United States. The course aims to prepare ESL students for academic classes by introducing them to a variety of techniques to process longer reading segments and by teaching effective debate skills.

ESL 318: Brilliant Essays in 30 Minutes - TOEFL Writing (30 hours - elective)
Brilliant Essays in 30 Minutes is an elective designed for advanced and college prep ESL students. The course focuses on developing note-taking and summarizing skills necessary for successful completion of iBT-TOEFL integrated writing tasks. The course includes a brief review of some basic principles of essay writing.

ESL 322: Advanced Pronunciation (60 hours - core)
This course covers all aspects of pronunciation, from individual sounds to intonation, rhythm, and stress. Students will work on identification and articulation of vowels and consonants; produce and identify meaning change through intonation; use reduction, linking and contractions; stress polysyllabic words correctly; understand and apply the principles of sentential stress, rhythm, and phrasing.

ESL 362: Advanced Speaking and Listening (60 hours - core)
This course focuses on developing students' listening comprehension, summarizing, and presentation skills. Students will understand main ideas and specific details of recorded passages on academic and general interest topics; take notes while listening and summarize the information orally; produce oral summaries of written material; prepare and deliver structured technology-assisted presentations on topics of general interest; participate in and orally summarize the outcome of group discussions; and develop an ability to support opinions, explain in detail, and hypothesize.

ESL 382: Advanced Reading and Writing (60 hours - core)
This course reviews the principles of paragraph structure and focuses on basic essay organization, formatting, and revision. Students will also learn to take effective notes during lectures and write brief summaries. The writing component includes a review of punctuating complex and compound sentences, fixing run-ons and avoiding fragments. Students will work with a variety of academic reading materials to develop basic reading skills (such as skimming for main ideas and scanning for specific information) as well as higher-level skills (such as making inferences and distinguishing between fact and opinion). Students will learn to deduce the meaning of unfamiliar words from contextual and structural clues and increase their vocabulary.

ESL 394: English through Songs and Broadway Musicals (30 hours - elective)
English through Songs and Broadway Musicals is an elective course for advanced and high-advanced ESL students. The course will introduce the students to a range of timeless classics that have become an important part of American culture and language. This course is designed to help students increase their vocabulary, gain familiarity with colloquial speech patterns and nonverbal expressions, and improve their reading, listening, and writing skills.

ESL 395: Vocabulary Development II (30 hours - elective)
Vocabulary Development II is an elective designed for advanced and college prep ESL students. This is an intensive course that focuses on academic vocabulary. In addition to the learning and practice of using new words, the students will develop the tools they need to understand unknown words through the ability to recognize prefixes, roots, and suffixes. Students will also be exposed to a variety of strategies for learning vocabulary on their own.

ESL 396: Introduction to Journalism (30 hours - elective)
Introduction to Journalism is an elective designed for advanced and high-advanced students. Students will be introduced to the basic principles and ethics of journalism, learn how to prepare for and conduct effective interviews, how to take notes during an interview, and how to weave quotes into texts. A key component of this course is to produce a high-quality student publication that can be added to the school's website.

ESL 400: TOEFL Preparation (60 hours - core)
Students will learn effective test-taking strategies and extensively practice completing all types of exercises found on the TOEFL iBT.

ESL 401: College Preparatory Skills (60 hours - core)
The purpose of the course is to aid students in understanding and adapting to the social and educational systems in the USA and to help them develop strong study and research skills. In particular, this course focuses on some of the basic principles of structuring a research paper, citing sources consistently, accurately, and with proper formatting (MLA style); taking effective lecture notes; and preparing and delivering formal presentations on academic subjects.

ESL 451: High-Advanced Reading (60 hours - elective)
This course is designed for students at the high-advanced level who need to improve their reading skills and enlarge their vocabulary. The readings explore controversial issues of contemporary U.S. culture.

ESL 452: High-Advanced Listening (60 hours - elective)
This course develops students' listening comprehension and note-taking skills, provides insights into U.S. life and culture, and builds vocabulary.

ESL 453: High-Advanced American Culture (60 hours - elective)
This course helps students develop skills in reading comprehension and critical thinking. The readings focus on contemporary U.S. culture.

ESL 454: High-Advanced Conversation (60 hours - elective)
This course helps students expand their fluency, emphasizing the language they need for real world communication.

ESL 462: College Prep Speaking & Listening (60 hours - core)
This course prepares higher-level students for the demands of college-level academic listening and speaking tasks such as comprehending and analyzing academic discourse, participating appropriately in small group discussions, presenting oral summaries, and giving short structured presentations on academic topics. The course incorporates an accent-reduction component.

ESL 482: College Prep Reading & Writing (60 hours - core)
The writing component of this course includes a review of paragraph structure and focuses on formal essays that incorporate information from a variety of sources. The reading component of the course aims at enabling students to process information in multi-page academic passages. The course includes a review of effective strategies for understanding unfamiliar academic vocabulary, a review of punctuation rules, and a remedial needs-based review of high-level grammatical constructions.

ESL 494: Grammar Workshop (30 hours - elective)
The Grammar Workshop is designed for high-advanced students. The course focuses on self-editing skills that enable students to express themselves accurately in writing.