Academic English

Information about the Academic English program: Link

Academic English is the main program offered at the ELI and it runs all year long, with four start dates. Students who are conditionally admitted to a degree program at Syracuse University enroll in Academic English.

Find out more about conditional admission at Syracuse

Students who want to succeed in an academic program in the United States benefit greatly from Academic English courses at the ELI. The ELI offers three courses: Textual Communication, Oral Communication, and Accuracy. Courses are offered in various proficiency levels, from beginning through advanced. Course components include reading comprehension, academic writing, grammar, listening comprehension, oral production, and vocabulary development. Students spend 20-25 hours per week in small classes with personalized attention from instructors and many opportunities for practice. In the fall and spring semesters, Academic English courses are supplemented with conversation and mentor groups for students to gain additional English practice. Descriptions of each course are below.

Academic English Courses Link

Oral Communication

This course allows students to practice academic listening and speaking skills with a focus on listening to academic lectures and preparing academic presentations. . An important aspect of this course is practicing skills and strategies to train students to compete successfully in a North American university by participating actively in class discussions and in group work and correctly interpreting academic content.

Textual Communication

This course places equal emphasis on academic reading and writing skills. The reading component focuses on reading to analyze texts, take notes, and then interpret, summarize, and paraphrase in order to and use the information to discuss those ideas in an academic forum. The writing component focuses on writing clear paragraphs and essays including information from primary and secondary sources (such as journals, books, and newspapers). These academic paragraphs and essays will use and combine a variety of rhetorical forms suitable to particular topics, audiences, and purposes.

Accuracy

This course will engage students in speaking, listening, reading and writing activities to allow practical, realistic opportunities to improve their grammatical accuracy, usage, editing skills, paraphrasing skills, and pronunciation. The expectation is that students will push themselves to take risks and to use the new grammar and structures that they are learning, not only in this class, but also in their Textual and Oral Communication classes.

Partner University Conditional Admission Agreements Link

Students who enroll at the ELI can receive conditional admission to the following universities:

• SUNY Oswego
• SUNY Jefferson Community College (JCC)
• Le Moyne College
• Trine University
• The San Mateo County Community College District
  • Cañada College
  • College of San Mateo
  • Skyline College

Once students successfully complete Level 3, and meet all other conditions in the conditional admission offer letter, students will be able to begin his/her degree program at the partner university of their choice.

Completion of Level 4 also opens doors to further options: competitive students can pursue conditional admission to: Syracuse University and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Academic English Proficiency Levels

Students attend class Monday through Friday. A typical day at the ELI looks like this:

*EST/EDT= Eastern Standard/Daylight Time

Fall 2024 Schedule Link

Fall 2024

Fall 2024 Course Fees Link