English Language Center (ELC)
BACKGROUND
As an institution committed to quality professional education of international standard, IUBAT University emphasizes English as the medium of communication as well as of education. Skills in English, necessary for effective study at IUBAT University, and for on the job purposes after graduation, are practiced by all the members of the IUBAT Community. The Department of Languages shoulders the enormous task of helping all IUBAT University students to communicate effectively on one hand and also to promote language learning in the community in general. Since 1991, the Department of Languages has streamlined the English language program and organized the subjects into modules of three main types: a. those designed to help students in their academic studies, b. those that prepare them for jobs, and c. those that provide enrichment in language experiences and life skills. Students entering the university every semester take a combination of these courses to develop their communication skills.
In addition to the language programs offered to students registered for long term study programs, the Department of Languages has initiated an English Language Center (ELC) which runs programs in communication skills for professionals and offers various language courses for individuals as well as organizations.
PROGRAMS CARRIED-OUT
The English Language Center (ELC) regularly carries out language programs for individuals who are interested in developing English language skills. These programs take the form of certificate courses. A number of such programs have been already carried out.
The Basic English course was initiated in January 1995 and througout the year 24 certificates were awarded under this course.
The English language course was conducted between January- April, 1995. Six individuals were awarded certificates from this course. A repeat run of this course between April-July 1995 led to award of certificates to 15 individuals.
The course on Spoken English was initiated in January 1996. This resulted in successful completion of the course by 17 individuals over the year.
English for Written Communication for Office Work was offered in 1997 for the first time and 8 individuals received certificates under this program.
Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was initiated in January 1997 and 3 individuals qualified to receive the certificate under this program.
The course on Intermediate English was initiated in February 1997 and only one individual successfully completed this program.
The ELC along with the Department of Languages, in collaboration of Visiting Professor Mellodie Hull, is carrying out a program on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) with the mission of integrating ESP into the curriculum of different programs being offered at IUBAT University. To this effect, a workshop on ESP for IUBAT University faculty was held on March 6, 2010.
CERTIFICATE AWARDING OF ENGLISH COURSES
The certificate awarding ceremony of the courses on English Language Skills and Conversational English organized by ELC was held on October 23 at the auditorium of Bangladesh Meteorology Department, Dhaka. The training courses are part of the initiative of ELC, IUBAT University, to develop skills in English language. 18 participants joined the course of English language skills and 17 participants joined the course of conversational English and completed these successfully.
ENGLISH TRAINING COURSES
The courses, strategic training programs, are designed for the students who are unsuccessful in the ELCT (English Language Competency Test). It will focus to refurbish the deficits relating to English Language Skills in the students. The four conventional English Language Courses of IUBAT University may also leave some shortcomings in the students which result in the ELCT. This training program is designed to work on those shortcomings identified in ELCT. There are three training courses:
- Training in Writing and Reading,
- Training in Speaking and Listening and Speaking and
- Training in Comprehensive English.
The fees are 4,000 for any of these courses.
INAUGURAL OF CERTIFICATE COURSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS
The inauguration ceremony of Certificate Course on Conversational English took place on 26 October 2003 at IUBAT University. The course is being conducted by IUBAT University under its English Language Centre (ELC). This 7 week long course had 39 participants.
WORKSHOP ON LANGUAGE LEARNING
ELC organized a Workshop on Language Learning for the language teachers at university and college levels on January 18, 2003. The workshop had been organized with resource support from Tilburg University, The Netherlands. The aim of the workshop was to strengthen the language delivery skills of the academicians involved in teaching using modern tools.
Dr Laetitia van den Heuvel-Weijermans, Professor, Department of Language and Literature, Tilburg University, The Netherlands, and Visiting Professor to Department of Languages of IUBAT University, led the Workshop.
SEMINAR ON QUALITY JOURNALISM IN BANGLADESH
A seminar on “Quality Journalism in Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects” was held on January 19, 2003. The seminar was led by Drs Gerard A M van den Heuvel, Emeritus Dean of Journalism of Fontys Professional University, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and Visiting Professor of Journalism to IUBAT University. Drs Heuvel made an orderly presentation on the challenges and prospects of quality journalism in Bangladesh against the benchmark of his study in 1996.
Drs Gerard A M van den Heuvel, Emeritus Dean of Journalism, Fontys Professional University, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and Visiting Professor of Journalism of IUBAT University who led the seminar said that Journalism is a profession that has its own rules and codes, but also an art that has to be developed in training.
Seminar on Using Literature to Teach Students in Reading and Writing English by Prof Dr Dorie DeWitt LaRue, Professor, Department of English, Louisiana State University, Shreveport, Louisiana, USA, July 5, 2014
CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH COURSE
The inaugural ceremony of Certificate Course on Conversational English took place on 23 February, 2003 at the Seminar Hall of IUBAT University. The course was being conducted by IUBAT—International University of Business Agriculture and Technology under its English Language Centre (ELC). This 5 weeks long course had 19 participants.
The classes of another conversational English course started on 9 October 2003. It was an eight week long course and had 26 participants.
DEBATE HELD
IUBAT University had completed its third intra-university debate competition on April 13th. The final debate of Spring Semester 2003 was held on the topic of “Governance by a benevolent dictator is preferable to a democracy”. The students of ENG 250 Public Speaking course organized the debate under the guidance of the Chair of the Department of Languages.
Language courses are regularly offered under English Language Center (ELC) and the ELC is being linked with the English Speaking Union widely known as ESU, having its head office in UK. Thus, the ELC effectively contributes towards realization of the goal of IUBAT University in promoting an English medium institution as well as assisting individuals and organizations to gain proficiency in English Language Program.
Some of the highlights of this program are as follows:
- Solid foundation of English grammar and vocabulary constitute the basics. An interactive grammar text serves as a framework and is the scaffolding on which to build the foundation. This framework is filled in with real-world, relevant, intelligent materials that expand one’s intellectual horizon
- Materials consisting of relevant, interesting, intellectually stimulating written, visual, and aural forms are used
- Written materials are drawn from English-language newspapers, magazines, literature, and the internet
- Visual materials are compiled from video tapes of films, television, documentary, and speeches.
- Aural materials are taken from cassette tapes of popular music, speeches, commentary
- Grammar points presented in the text are emphasized and expanded upon through the use of these materials
- Study skills are continually emphasized in all areas
- Coursework is primarily interactive, most importantly between the students themselves
- The classroom is student centered
- Students are given sufficient time with a variety of activities to interact with each other, to experiment with the language freely
- Varied classroom format is used
- A class usually consists of 12-15 students
- Schedule coincides with IUBAT’s academic calendar
- Intensive daily classroom work is provided with individual attention from the faculty
- Faculty with advanced degrees and wide experiences of teaching English as a second language, learning other languages and living in other cultures are employed.
- Individual advisers get to know students well and help them reach their goals.
- Use of all university facilities, including recreational and sports facilities, libraries, computer labs and roof-top cafeteria are allowed.
- Courses are offered on the basis of availability of participants and faculty
- Institutional services can be offered to organizations through negotiations only in case of a minimum of six participants.
These features constitute the cornerstone of the language and preparatory programs conducted by the ELC and, at the same time contribute to the overall philosophy of learning at IUBAT University.
The curriculums of the English Language Program as well as other Preparatory Programs are indicated below:
CURRICULUM OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMS
ELP01 BASIC ENGLISH
Target Participants:
It is an introductory course designed for those with limited previous exposure to English giving a solid foundation on which to build further competence. This is an important opportunity to build student confidence and encourage further English study and practice.
Objective:
By the end of the program, the learners are expected to have a solid foundation of the English Language, which will help them exhibit considerable proficiency in performance in authentic situations, and which will also encourage them to receive steady improvement in the skills related to communicative operations.
Course Outline:
Listening & Speaking: IPA, transcription, stress; Situational dialogues; Reading out, talks; Listening to prescribed cassettes; Watching documentaries. Reading: Reading for pleasure; Reading for understanding; Reading with strategies. Writing & Grammar: Word classes, sentence types; Number, person, gender; Tenses and sequences of tenses; Nouns and determiners; Operators; If-clauses; Paragraphs & letters; Text analysis. Vocabulary: In lists; Contextualized; In talks; In exercises.
Training Platform:
Audio and audio-visual aids, books and pre-developed materials and videos.
Course Fee: Tk. 4,000/-
Duration: 2 months
ELP01 BASIC ENGLISH
Target Participants:
It is an introductory course designed for those with limited previous exposure to English giving a solid foundation on which to build further competence. This is an important opportunity to build student confidence and encourage further English study and practice.
Objective:
By the end of the program, the learners are expected to have a solid foundation of the English Language, which will help them exhibit considerable proficiency in performance in authentic situations, and which will also encourage them to receive steady improvement in the skills related to communicative operations.
Course Outline:
Listening & Speaking: IPA, transcription, stress; Situational dialogues; Reading out, talks; Listening to prescribed cassettes; Watching documentaries. Reading: Reading for pleasure; Reading for understanding; Reading with strategies. Writing & Grammar: Word classes, sentence types; Number, person, gender; Tenses and sequences of tenses; Nouns and determiners; Operators; If-clauses; Paragraphs & letters; Text analysis. Vocabulary: In lists; Contextualized; In talks; In exercises.
Training Platform:
Audio and audio-visual aids, books and pre-developed materials and videos.
Course Fee: Tk. 4,000/-
Duration: 2 months
ELP 03 ADVANCED ENGLISH
Target Participants:
Any persons who have basic/intermediate command of all the four basic skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing of the English language, but confront difficulties when using the skills in advanced level work such as listening to native speakers, speaking in BrF/AmF in a fluent, spontaneous and accurate way, reading difficult texts, writing articles, etc, can seek enrolment in the program.
Objective:
By the end of the program, the participants are expected to be able to use the English language in almost all types of situation/work with maximal fluency, accuracy (grammatical and pragmatic) and spontaneity.
Course Outline:
Listening & Speaking: IPA, transcription, stress and intonation; Listening to dialogue, connected utterances, statements; Situational talks, story telling, group discussion, extemporaneous speeches, debates, picture/place description; Talks with native speakers; Colloquial vocabulary development. Reading: Different cohesive devices: grammatical, logical, etc; Thesis statement, introduction, topic sentence, conclusion, etc; Intensive reading: plays and poems, articles; Extensive reading: stories, novels. Writing: Phrases, clauses, sentences; Paragraph to essay; Vocabulary development. Miscellaneous: Differences between BrF and AmE; Social role relative and cultural traits; Conversational strategies.
Learning Material:
A self contained learning book will be provided to the participants when a module requires it.
Course Fee: Tk. 6,000/-
Duration: 4 months
ELP04 SPOKEN ENGLISH
Target Participants:
Anybody who has some knowledge of English grammar, a vocabulary of about 30 frequently used words and aptitude, but is not able to communicate naturally through spoken English is welcome to this program.
Objective:
By the end of the program, the participants are expected to be able to use speaking skills in order to communicate naturally in almost all types of authentic situations.
Course Outline:
Basic level: Conversation practice: meeting, parting, daily activities, asking the time, personal health, shopping, riding a bus, telephoning, asking direction, getting information, days, dates, seasons, ordering food, weather conditions, office details, etc; Vocabulary items related to conversation topics; Listening practice with cassettes; Grammar structures related to speaking skills; Reading out from magazines; Free talks between student, and between student and the teacher; Story telling; Picture description; Pronunciation of given words. Advanced level: Elementary Phonetics: IPA, transcription, word stress, sentence stress, intonation; Noun phrase: determines, premodifiers, and postmodifiers; Verb phrase: auxiliaries, tensed and non-tensed verbs. Listening practice with cassettes. Vocabulary extension. Conversations covering all real situations. Picture description. Extemporaneous speech. Tenses and sequences of tenses, conditionals, medals, reported speech, and passivization. Miscellaneous.
Learning Material:
A self-contained learning pack will be provided to the participants at the start of each module.
Course Fee: Tk. 4,000/-
Duration: 2 months
ELP 05 Advanced Spoken English
Target Participants:
Any person who has successfully completed the Spoken English program at IUBAT University, or possesses speaking skills which enable them to communicate naturally in almost all types of authentic situations.
Objective:
The participants who will be able to complete the program successfully, are expected to have gained a critical level of confidence in his/her English ability which will encourage further development towards fluency.
Course Outline:
This course would afford the student much needed additional practice with the spoken language and specially much needed further development of listening skills. These two components, i.e , speaking and listening, go hand in hand and require additional directed practice time in order to form a basis for comprehension and production success.
Advance level: Phonetics, IPA, transcription, word stress, sentences stress, intonation; Noun Phrase: determines, premodifiers and postmodifiers, Verb, Phrase: auxiliaries, tensed and non- tensed verbs. Listening practice with cassettes. Vocabulary extension. Conversations covering all real situations. Picture description. Extemporaneous speech. Tenses and sequences of tenses, conditionals, medals, reported speech and passivization Miscellaneous. The content of the course is so designed that the students hopefully will have acquired enough grammar background and participated in sufficient speaking-listening practice.
Learning Material:
A self contained learning package will be provided to the participants at the start of each module.
Course Fee: Tk. 6,000/-
Duration: 4 months
ELP06 ENGLISH FOR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION AND OFFICE WORK
Target Participants:
Anyone who works in an office and has a Bachelor/Master degree can participate in this program. However, the target participants are those who have had substantial previous English experience and as such the entry into the program will be screened through a placement test.
Objective:
By the end of the program, the participants should be able to communicate more effectively by writing different kinds of business letters, memoranda, resumes and company minutes.
Course Outline:
The writing process. Writing narrative paragraphs. Writing descriptive paragraphs. Writing explanatory paragraphs. Effective business writing. Routine messages. Job application. Persuasive messages. Writing a report. Writing and speaking to get a job.
Learning Materials :
Developed learning materials will be provided along with reference materials for use
Course Fee: Tk. 6,000/-
Duration: 4 months
ELP07 English for Professionals
Target Participants:
Any one with good English language ability but is interested in fine tuning in spoken communication, stylistic and professional business writing.
Objective:
By the end of the program, the participants should be able to communicate very effectively in professional business writing.
Course Outline:
The content of the course is geared towards refining the professionals with good English language abilities and to gain excellence in communication concerning various types of business writings.
Learning Material:
Besides the reference materials, a self contained learning pack will be provided to the participants at the start of the program.
Course Fee: Tk. 7,000/-
Duration: 4 months
PREPARATORY PROGRAMS
PREP01 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)
TOEFL is designed to evaluate the English proficiency of people whose native language is not English. The three-section test, which uses a multiple-choice format, measures listening comprehension, structure and written expression, and vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Target Participants:
The persons who need to take TOEFL, but are unable to score 500 or more because of some insistent problems encountered in writing ability, vocabulary, listening and reading comprehension, can do this course. Entry qualification is HSC, 0/A levels, Bachelors.
Objective:
By the end of the course, the participants are expected to be able to score 550 or more in TOEFL.
Course Outline:
Listening: IPA, Stress, intonation, transcription; Listening practice with cassettes-statements, mini talks, etc; Differences between BrE and AmE. Writing: Grammar and structure; NP, VP, clause, conditionals, passivization, reported speech; so-so, so-as, too-to, scarcely/hardly-when; Structures in examples. Reading; Reading strategies; Intensive and extensive reading; Skimming, scanning, etc; Reading comprehension exercises; Vocabulary: In list; In filling-in-gap exercises. ETS materials are included.
Learning Material:
A self contained learning pack will be provided to the participants at the start of some modules. ETS materials will be used.
Course Fee: Tk. 5,000/-
Duration: 3 months
PREP 02 Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT)
Designed for business graduates who want to pursue higher degrees in business studies in the United States. Technique-oriented teaching by skilled instructors ensures good score at GMAT examination.
Entry Qualification: Bachelors/Master degree holders.
Course Fee: Tk. 9,000/-
Duration: 4 months
PREP 03 Graduate Record Examination (GRE)
University graduates who aspire to pursue graduate and postgraduate studies abroad, but are unable to attain satisfactory score because of poor background in English and Mathematics at graduate level, can attend this course. By the end of this course, the participants are expected to meet the eligibility requirement for pursuing graduate studies abroad.
Entry Qualification: Bachelors/Master degree holders.
Course Fee: Tk. 9,000/-
Duration: 4 months
PREP 04 Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT)
Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) / O and A certificate holders who aspire to pursue Bachelor level studies abroad, particularly USA, can attend this course. By end of this course, the participants are expected to meet the eligibility requirement for persuing Bachelor level studies abroad.
Entry Qualification: HSC / O and A levels/Bachelors
Course Fee: Tk. 8,000/-
Duration: 4 months
Book Reading Program
The Department of Languages embarked on a book reading program in collaboration with the British Council from Spring semester 2013. The book reading competition program is consolidated and integrated into the two English proficiency courses: ENG 101 Basic English and ENG 102 English Comprehension and Speaking. The basic level reading program is designed for the freshmen of different programs. The students require to pay the registration of Tk. 200 which is payable to the British Council. On the other hand, the intermediate or advanced level reading program is designed for and offered students in their second semester free of cost. There are a number of books provided by the British Council, available in IUBAT University Library. The language faculty plan reading lessons and teach the students based upon the books. The students are allowed to borrow the books. In the Spring semester 2013, 400 students received certificates while a number of students received both the certificates and prizes. The highest scorer received laptop and certificate. The certificates and prizes are provided by the British Council. This program is an impetus to enhancing students’ reading capability.
