Bridging the gap between prep classes and freshman year

Official URL: http://crowdselt.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/innovations-in-english-language-teaching-and-learning.pdf

One of the great strengths of the upper intermediate program at Sabancı University School of Languages is the extent to which it acts as a bridge between the preparatory English year and the kinds of lectures the students will be attending and the language they’ll be encountering when they progress to their freshman studies. A major part of this bridge is the series of lectures in mathematics and natural sciences (EMS) which the students attend for one hour a week and which form a percentage of their overall course grade. As teachers, our hope is that our students enjoy the valuable opportunity to experience something of what life will be like for them when they are attending lectures in their freshman classes. Additionally, we aim to show the students that, although the content of the lectures may already be familiar, they need to remember that, this being an English course, they need to become familiar with the language used in these lectures to showcase their competencies. This chapter is an exploration of the extent to which is actually happening.