Intensive English Program

Program At a Glance 

Discovery Learning Center (DLC) is committed to providing excellent English as a Second Language programs to non-native speakers who are serious about achieving the language proficiency needed to successfully communicate with other English speakers, or simply for their own self-improvement. We recognize that our students come from diverse cultures and academic backgrounds and that every student has different strengths and weaknesses, focuses and needs.

[COVID-19 Updates]
Discovery Learning Center is currently offering both online/hybrid and in-person instruction in light of the COVID-19 public health crisis. Students in online classes will take classes via video-conferencing software until further notice. To determine eligibility for online classes, please contact the school staff.

DLC offers 6 levels (courses) in the Intensive English Program. The total number of clock hours for each course within the program’s offerings is 180 (10 weeks).

COURSE LEVEL
IEP100 Low Beginning (Intro)
IEP200 Beginning
IEP300 Intermediate
IEP400 High Intermediate
IEP500 Advanced
IEP600 High Advanced

Course Descriptions

IEP100 Low Beginning (Intro)

By introducing basic, literacy skills as well as oral-communication skills, this course aims to instill confidence in students as they establish a solid foundation for their usage of English. This course helps students to become familiar with English pronunciation and elementary vocabulary through guided practice informed by the communicative approach. This course focuses on basic, oral-communication skills for typical, day-to-day interactions/situations. Listening practice and minimal speaking tasks will satisfy routine classroom and social demands. A variety of conversational activities include focused, pronunciation practice and guided pair-work that inspire comprehension of functional words, common phrases, and simple sentences. Serving as a general introduction to reading and writing skills in English, this course will help students learn how to read and write basic words, phrases, and sentences. Basic-English, verb tenses in both present and past time are also taught to students to facilitate the formulation of simple questions and production of short responses for at least a superficial engagement with members of society.

IEP200 Beginning

This course will help students to develop their listening-comprehension skills and fluency of speech in everyday interactions/situations by focusing on more essential grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation exercises/activities.  Students will forge a clear path to competency in both spoken and written English. Through specific spoken and written exercises, students will learn to use complete sentences with subject-verb agreement (singular and plural) with the appropriate verb tense (present, past, or future time) as well as utilize countable/non-countable nouns and pronouns for any objects. Students will read brief passages too that cover a variety of engaging themes and topics. Emphasis is on comprehension of content, recognition of main ideas, and retention of essential vocabulary in context.

IEP300 Intermediate

In this course, students will continue to develop communicative competence in English by practicing and producing relevant grammatical structures and vocabulary for the expression of preferences, expectations, and discussion of events.  A broad range of communicative methods such as role-playing, pair/group work, and dialogue construction will be employed to inspire proficiency in English. This course also creates an authentic reading experience through selected texts, meaning-focused analysis, and vocabulary-comprehension exercises. Students are encouraged to make inferences and draw conclusions while reading. They will also go on to personally respond to what they have read by writing short paragraphs.

IEP400 High Intermediate

This course is designed to meet the needs of high-intermediate level students by encouraging them to engage in more extensive production of English. Opportunities for discussion and presentation are the norm here. Small-group discussions will help students to not only refine their usage of English grammar and vocabulary but also pronunciation.  There will be emphasis on reading and then analyzing the content of multipage articles – with particular focus on distinguishing between main and supporting ideas.  The study of context clues will also support comprehension of essential vocabulary.  Moreover, in order to enhance the grammar skills of students at this level, there will be instruction in the application of subordinating conjunctions for the creation of complex sentences.

IEP500 Advanced

By utilizing auditory recordings on an array of themes and topics that stimulate critical thinking, students will hone their listening skills for both formal and informal discourse.  Students will hone their reading skills too by engaging with short stories and long-form articles from popular, media outlets.  They will eventually turn their critical analysis of those reading passages into five-paragraph essays.  Grammar lessons highlight adjective/noun clauses, conditionals, modals, and equatives for variety in sentence construction.

IEP600 High Advanced

Serving as the culmination of advanced-level speaking, reading, and writing in the English language, this course caters to the needs of students whose goal is fluency for success in an institution of higher learning and/or in the workplace.  Thus, a wide range of media content is employed to further familiarize students with the pronunciation and idiomatic expressions that are regularly utilized by native speakers of English.  Students will participate in tasks that mirror the demands of a college classroom and/or company office in the U.S.  The end result(s) of those tasks will be captured in a series of multipage essays that will include in-text citations and the attendant bibliography.