PREP SCHOOL
 

Our centre specialized in language education offers students registered in university programs in English the opportunity of learning professional English in intensive courses. The courses are programmed into two levels; those appropriate for students of the elementary level and those appropriate for students of the intermediate level.

The intermediate course has been limited in 14 weeks equal to a school term. Even for this level the number of lectures per week is 20 and each lecture is 50 minutes. The time reserved for each level of English is 7 weeks; at the end of these 14 weeks the students is expected to communicate in English without problems. During the intensive course, as the acquired quantity of knowledge increases the student is able to read multifaceted texts, to perceive a broad range of information regardless the narrator, and to write full essays where he expresses his opinions and supports them with arguments. The student is assumed to learn reading, writing, the structure and the strategy of organizing and comprehending academic works. When the student finishes this course successfully he is given the respective certificate which proves that the student has been graduated from prep school and that he is able to attend lectures of every branch maintained in English. .

So that the education can be effective and in total compliance with the student's necessities, at the beginning of the course the student undertakes a placement test, which demonstrates his real level in English.

The prep school program is a contemporary international program successfully applied in universities abroad. The weekly program of 20 lectures is composed of 15 main course classes, 3 academic writing classes, and 2 portfolio classes.

The text chosen to be the main course method is the ‘Opportunities' series; a contemporary method in levels in compliance with the general interests of all age groups. This new edition is accompanied with a practicing book – Language Power Book- organized to be supportive to the topics explained in the student's book. The Mini-Dictionary is another important part of this method, designed to make the learning of the new words easier. The CD is adequate for both individual and group work. The group work is part of the practice seances in our centre. This program thought and designed according to the necessities of the candidates aims the expanding of his knowledge in all aspects of English such as the reading and the comprehension of the passages, the comprehension of the listened excerpt – taking notes and while listening methods-, the grammatical rules and exceptions, the expansion of word knowledge –roots, derivates and compounds-as well as the communication of personal ideas and the relation about other's opinion.

The text selected to be the academic writing method is ‘Write to Communicate'; a contemporary method, which- according to the goal of this subject- focuses on the teaching of the orthographical rules and the structure of written English, from the simple sentences to the paragraphs and the well-developed academic essays. This subject makes the student able to express his knowledge, opinions, and arguments both during his school life and career.

The portfolio classes have been arranged to inspire the student to work individually and to be aware of the world around him. Every week the student is supposed to hand in his file with the four his works and relate about them. First, the student is given the book and DVD of VOA (Voice of America News for English Students) and this way he is given the opportunity to read, listen and watch the informing edition visually. After, the student undertakes a quiz based over these listened informative sequences. This quiz that is conducted in two different ways and aims to test the listening ability of the students is 25% of that week's portfolio mark.

The student is required to read a staged book and to retell it during the portfolio class. This process that includes and improves the student's skills in reading, comprehending and reproducing is the 25% of the portfolio mark. The other weekly assignment is the tracing and reproducing of any newspaper, magazine or website article, what is the other 25% of his weekly mark. The last 25% of his portfolio mark is the independent writing of an essay about a topic related to the topics discussed during the lectures that week; a topic the student has developed and wants to demonstrate his point of view.

During the lectures practice goes together with theory and time after time students are given diverse tests, related exrcises and informing brochures tightly related with the taught topic.

It is worth pointing out the fact that during each level of this course the students are taught a considerable number of English words of 1000-1200. In other words, the candidates is assured to becomes an advanced speaker of English.