General Background
The prevailing scenario of Bangladesh unfolds that the students at the primary and secondary levels do not get enough opportunity to learn English. Therefore, with a view to prioritizing a sophisticated and effective language teaching, as well as, following University Grant Commission (UGC) regulation BRAC University introduced six credits English language courses to help the students improve their proficiency levels at the beginning of tertiary level education. But unfortunately these six credits were not enough to meet the expectations as students of different proficiency levels get enrolled in the university. Consequently, EL-Pro came into being in the later part of 2005 and developed the modular system based on learners’ proficiency levels (intermediate, upper intermediate & advanced level). Since then, this approach has been proven successful as it is committed not only for eliminating the possibility of having mixed ability classes, where some students flourish and some students struggle, but also in ensuring excellent interaction between teachers and learners within small classes. It has also a pre-university course for the students who need extra help with their English language skills to be successful university students. Therefore, the successful implementation of all these initiatives unsurprisingly keeps BRAC University few steps ahead than other universities whenever language teaching and practice are concerned.
Moreover, while chasing the rapid growth of globalization and aiming to enlarge the success arena, it was necessitated that the learning of other languages would help the students to be benefitted further. For that reason, BRACU EL-Pro became BRACU Centre for Languages (CfL) in 2008 and started offering English, French, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, Arabic and Bengali to the undergraduate students.
Furthermore, to bridge the gap between industry and academia, CfL offers different professional language and communicative courses which have the double benefit of keeping our faculty aware of what is required in the industry and giving them opportunity to gather research data while providing service to the community.
Beside regular courses, CfL provides non-awarding EAP courses for Diploma in Early Childhood Development and Masters in Educational Leadership and Management for IED. At Savar Campus, CfL has taken the integrated approach to teach English in context of Bangladesh studies and ethics.
University Courses for undergraduate students
CfL offers four modular courses for the students having Intermediate to Advanced proficiency levels, and three specialized courses for advanced students only.
ENG 091/ Non-awarding
This course is designed for intermediate level students to help them enhance all the four language skills-listening, speaking, writing and reading. The materials are developed in line with the students’ present knowledge and the level they are expected to achieve. The writing strand consists of descriptive, compare-contrast, and argumentative writing. The students also review stories. They also write reflective portfolios every week. The listening/speaking part emphasizes on role-play, speech and argumentative presentation.
The classes focus on students’ participation; therefore, cooperative tasks are designed to give students opportunities to enhance knowledge by sharing ideas. Students are evaluated throughout the semester by participation, quizzes, assignment, mid-term, presentation and final (sit-in) exams.
ENG 101/ 3 credits
This course is designed for the students who have language proficiency of upper intermediate level. The focus of the course is to help students develop all the four language skills-listening, speaking, writing and reading. The materials to be used have also been developed considering the (i +1) of the students. The writing strand of the course includes pre-writing process, coherence and unity, descriptive, narrative and argumentative writing. The listening/speaking strand consists of many different presentations on interesting topics. It also emphasizes listening to music and discussing the literal and implied meaning of the songs. Another important content of this strand is to prepare students for final presentation providing lessons on presentation skills. The methodologies, approaches and techniques of providing lessons are not one particular way focused. The communicative language teaching approach is considered to be the major path of delivering lessons; however, the content-based and task-based approaches are also combined. There are group work, pair work, role-play, simulation, dramatization, and presentation as activities in the class. The most notable thing is that we share the good and bad experiences in the class and make necessary changes in developing materials, designing tasks and activities. The teachers at the centre are also encouraged to employ their innovation in delivering lessons what they do with great success. Students are evaluated throughout the semester by participation, quizzes, assignment, mid-term, presentation and final (sit-in) exams.
ENG 101/102/ 3 credits
This course is designed for advanced level students to help them develop their critical reading and academic writing skills. The materials for the course have been developed considering the present intelligence of students and their expected level of proficiency. The writing strand of the course includes pre-writing process, summary and paraphrase, citation, cause and effect, response paper and argumentation. The critical reading strand emphasizes reading for purpose, believing and doubting, and rhetorical skills which would enable them to evaluate issues from different perspectives. The techniques of providing lessons are interactive and learner-centered. Group and pair works, jigsaw reading and in-class presentation, role-play are common characteristics of the classes. Students are evaluated throughout the semester by participation, quizzes, assignment, mid-term, presentation and final (sit-in) exam.
ENG 101/102/ 3 credits
The course is called "Essentials of Academic Writing" which primarily deals with proficient students. Freshers proficient in English language take this course as Eng101, and students who have completed Module-5 take it as their required Eng-102. This course is aimed to expose students to the essential conventions of academic writing. Consequently it focuses primarily on argumentative essays, as writing in academia is essentially a participation in an ongoing conversation or debate with other writers on a certain issue. In the beginning students explores the differences between formal and informal essays through a number of readings. And then this class concentrates heavily on argumentative essays exploring its various structural dynamics. It relies on students' critical reading skills to investigate different argumentative essays to explore their strengths and weaknesses. At this point students come up with a research question, based on which students prepare a draft of argumentative essay. Once these drafts are submitted, instructor gives specific guidelines and suggestions in terms of both style and research areas. Students at this stage not only explores secondary research materials for their essays, they also find out what it takes to argue on given topic/issue, as they deal with background information, reasoning, opposing views and rebuttal. Once these are addressed in their paper they submit their essays as Final Term Papers which carry 10% of their final grade.
ENG 202: Business English (3 credits)
This course is aimed at developing students’ verbal and written communication skills with regard to business and commercial purposes. International correspondence, brochures, press releases, and reports are important components of this course. The course is designed to enable students to participate in business discussions and negotiations with proficiency. In this course, students are also expected to develop an understanding of appropriate discourse and diction in the world of business.
ENG203: Communication Skills (for Architecture Students) (3 credits)
This course is designed for Architecture students who have completed at least one ELP course. It allows the students to have ample opportunity to explore their potentials and possess advanced skills in communication—both written and verbal. The aim of this course is to provide more academic exposure of the four skills of communication (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in English language with the topics particularly related to and/or useful for the students of Architecture.
The class will be highly interactive, and a learner-centred approach will be maintained throughout the session. Students’ needs are evaluated at the beginning of each semester and highly valued in adding or modifying the course contents for the most authenticity suitable for the students of Architecture department. The focal contents of the session include writing in context, drafting, critical thinking, gender bias and political correctness, communication across cultures, documenting sources, shaping an effective argument, oral presentation and strategies for reading comprehension and seminar skills.
Throughout the whole course, the students are required to work beyond the books and they work on different analytical tasks selected in class and home.
The course evaluation mainly focuses on the students’ participation, quizzes, assignments, midterm examination, presentation and final term paper.
Advanced Writing and Presentation Course (ENG 103/ 3 credits)
The objective of the Advanced Writing and Presentation course (AWP) is multi-layered. In the immediate term, the goal is to help students research a topic of interest, broaden their knowledge and understanding, and develop a piece of academic writing to reflect both the research and their engagement with the issues involved. Through a series of assignments, students will develop their skills in researching, analyzing, synthesizing, and presenting both the information and their interpretations and conclusions. In the longer term, the hope is that the assignments and tasks of this course will prepare students for active participation in life: professionally, academically and personally.
Pre-University Courses
This unique programme is designed for those students who are seeking to perfect and polish their English language skills to become successful BRAC University students. This course is for those students who proved themselves competent in their respective discipline during the admission text except in English. This course is for those students who proved themselves competent in their respective discipline during the admission text except in English.
This twelve weeks long intensive programme which encourages holistic approach based on critical thinking and inquiry is designed by an American fellow Beth Trudell. The goal of this programme is to assist the students to become active and independent learners, critical thinkers, responsible and thoughtful adults and most importantly successful university students. Reading and writing classes in this programme provide opportunities to read, annotate and talk about a variety of texts. It introduces writing as a systematic and creative task. Listening and speaking classes prepare students for real-world speaking situations such as solving problems, exchanging information, and describing their experiences. Critical thinking and enhancement classes add a new creative element. These multi skilled classes based on specific interest provide exposure and help the students to reason, converse and build analytical skills. The students who come from mainstream Bangla medium background enjoy this intellectually challenging and welcoming atmosphere.
CERTIFICATE IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES (TESOL)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Admission Requirements
All applicants must have the following qualifications:
- A Bachelor degree in English, Education, or any relevant subject from a recognized or accredited institution.
- Fluency in English, enough to pursue the programme, to be assessed through spoken and written tests at BRACU Institute of Languages.
- 1 year’s teaching experience or an MA. in English from a recognized or accredited institution.
- No Objection Letter from employer.
- Candidates will be interviewed by the Centre to assess their suitability for the Course.
English Language Course
A 72 hour English Language Course will be offered to all the participants who score below 65% but above 45% in the English Proficiency Test.
Programme Description
Module 1: Methodology and Current Issues in English Language Teaching (3 credits 48 hours, transferrable to MA TESOL)
This module will introduce students to the general principles, approaches, methods, techniques and theories of teaching English languages so that the students will be able to select or combine the appropriate methods for their purpose of classroom teaching.
It will also explore concepts of learning a second language with a special focus on the learning process, physical, psychological and social factors that affect learning, as well as the distinctions between first and second language acquisition.
Module 2: Materials Design, Testing, and Use of Technology in ELT
(Non Credit 48 hours)
This module will focus at the historical perspective as well as the recent developments in this field. This module will guide students to have an in-depth knowledge on needs analysis, designing and developing syllabus and materials and also on how methods and approaches affect syllabus, curriculum and material design and evaluate ELT curriculum.
Module 3: TESOL in Practice
(3 credits 48 hours, transferrable to MA TESOL)
This module will orient students to theoretical issues of ESL. It will also focus on practical aspects of language pedagogy and teaching language skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Skills of creating lesson plans and preparing teaching aids will also be practiced. Students will get the opportunity to try out their learning as practical classroom practice.
Module 4: Teaching Practicum
(3 credits 48 hours, transferrable to MA TESOL)
This practicum module will allow students to plan and teach independently in real classrooms under the supervision of a specialist. This will require them to create lesson plans and materials. Candidates will be assessed through observation, and through the portfolio they maintain of lesson plans, self reports and a concluding report.
Course Assessment policy:
As per BRACU grading policy
Course cost detail:
The total cost for this Certificate in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) is 82,000 taka only. The admission fee for the course is 5,000 taka and the course fee is 77,000 taka only. The course fee is payable in three (03) installments.
Class duration:
The course offers two classes in week on every Friday and Saturday. The class timing on Fridays will be from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm and on Saturdays the class will be held from 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Thus this course offers a total of eight academic hours in each week over a period of six months.
Contact:
BRAC University Centre for Languages (CfL)
66, Mohakhali, Dhaka-1212
Tel: 8824051-4, Ext- 4105 & 4104, Mobile: 01191700207 or visit www.bracu.ac.bd