Unlike what is normally expected in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms where students “learn to use English,” this course is designed to help and guide students to “use English to learn,” in their development of the four integrated* skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In other words, the focus of this course is on the process of learning. Students are thus expected to take full responsibility for their own learning and to take an active role in class, through a variety of exercises which would provide them with opportunities for individual reflection, pair/small-group work, as well as outside-of-class assignments. The themes/topics chosen for class materials are kept to be up-to-date, varied, and yet interesting enough for students to get and feel personally involved in making meaning. Other than the mid-term and final exams, each student will need to turn in an Oral Journal report at the end of the semester (see below for details). There will also be quizzes and dictations taken in class, if time permits.
*It should be noted that the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing can not really be separated. The increase in one will positively affect and interact with the others to produce a corresponding increase in overall language ability.