Introduction
Development
At the heart of the English Language Center is our team of dedicated EFL professionals and administrative staff who ensure the successful implementation of English courses required by all undergraduate students at PCCU. We aim to produce competent speakers of English, confident in communicating with foreigners, with the language skills necessary to make a positive impression when they enter the local or international workplace. Auxiliary objectives include enriching students’ cultural awareness of Anglophone societies, and enthusing students with an interest in learning English that will continue after they graduate.
Mission
In addition to instructing within modern, multi-media language laboratories, our teachers are all involved in a variety of extra-curricula activities to provide learners with ample opportunity to improve their English. These range from one-on-one instruction during teachers’ office hours and “Four Skills Clinics,” small group “Chatting Times,” to large events such as the “Skit Contest,” “College Bowl,” and “Singing Contest. ”
The Center also provides remedial classes for students who need additional support, as well as small-group conversation courses for graduate students.
We are constantly engaged in reviewing and revamping our policies to maintain the highest standard of English instruction.
Course Introduction
English Conversation Lab. (Course Code: CB36)
Freshman -- CB36 (A Level)
This course is designed for students at the high-intermediate level of English proficiency.
Students at this level understand a great deal more than those in the intermediate level and are willing to use what English they know once they are encouraged to do so. Although, they may still lack the confidence to initiate conversation in English frequently, these students may be a little more motivated in improving their oral fluency and competence in speaking English. Therefore, this course aims to give students more opportunity to review and practice the English they already know through much more participation in pair work, problem-solving tasks and cooperative learning group work than the intermediate level classes. On completing this course, students should be able to understand the main ideas of readings on various topics, including his/her field of specialization. They should be able to carry on a conversation with native speakers without too much difficulty. They may also be able to explain a viewpoint on a social issue, giving the advantages and disadvantages of various ideas.
Freshman -- CB36 (B Level)
This course is designed for students at the intermediate level of English proficiency.
Students at this level are not as hesitant in expressing themselves and are a little more confident in conversing in the target language than those students who are in the low-intermediate level. They are able to understand more difficult English conversation beyond the everyday situations such as work, family, housing and initiate casual conversation, give instructions, make requests, etc. Anxiety in the speaking English before others may run high. Therefore, the goal here in this level is to give students the opportunity to increase their confidence in learning and eliminate their fear of making mistakes in speaking English. This can be accomplished by building up their language abilities through drills, controlled dialogue paradigms, pairwork, simple role-plays, etc. Upon completing this course, students should be able to understand the familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. They should be able to deal with most situations likely to arise during travels in areas where English is spoken. They can speak on topics which are familiar or of things that they have a personal interest. With some hesitation they can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.
Freshman -- CB36 (C Level)
This course is designed for students at the low-intermediate level of English proficiency. For the most part, students are not confident enough able to understand and speak English on their own but with encouragement and support from peers and teacher, they are able to give personal information and at times, answer to simple English questions from daily real life situations. Therefore, the focus in this course should be on listening comprehension skills (i.e., strategies such as predicting, guessing, inferring and the like) and dialogue practices. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, and employment). They can give advice, describe his/her background and experience, abilities, people and familiar places.
Freshman -- CB36 (D Level)
This course is designed for students at the pre-intermediate level of English proficiency. The students may be able to understand and speak, given a paradigm of simple dialogues to imitate. Their grammatical, pronunciation and spelling problems are quite prevalent.
Therefore, it aims to help students understand and review basic sentence structures, build on basic vocabularies and focus on pronunciation accuracy. With further gain in understanding the English language, students are given an opportunity to close the gap between language study and language use. After the completion of this course, students should be able to engage in simple casual conversation at a pre-intermediate level; be able to understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases. They should be able to make introductions and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where s/he lives, people s/he knows and things s/he does on a daily basis and what s/he has.
Teaching Resources
Language Laboratories
The Language Center has ten modern, multi-media language laboratories, with seating for 64 students. Each lab comes equipped with a computer at the teacher’s workstation, a projection screen, sound system, a DVD/ CD player, a VCR, a white-board, headphones and cassette player at every student-desk. In addition to usual multi-media equipment necessary for a language lab, the eleventh lab classroom has individual computers for each student.
Language Center’s Library
In our main office, teachers have access to a modest but growing library consisting of EFL course books, DVDs, communicative activity books, as well as theoretical textbooks to keep teachers abreast of the latest teaching techniques and approaches to language functions and grammar targets.
Teachers’ offices
Full-time teachers are provided with individual offices which offer ample space and privacy for teachers to prepare classes and conduct research, as well as provide learning consultation to students during formal office hours. All offices come equipped with a computer and printer.
