Academic Catalog 2023-2024

Slippery Rock University

English as a Second Language (ESL)

ESL 001 -  Start ESL Reading  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This is a beginning ESL reading course in which students focus on understanding the meaning of written English by reading a variety of texts. students develop skills to read and understand English to make a transition from word-by-word translation to reading comprehension.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 002 -  Basic ESL Reading  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This is a basic ESL reading course in which students read various types of written texts in order to improve reading skills. Topics relate to academic and everyday life. Emphasis is placed on building vocabulary, developing reading strategies and critical thinking skills.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 003 -  Intermediate ESL Reading  

This course is not for native speakers of English. Students learn to read English as a second language fluently by reading interesting stories with a variety of topics, controlled for proficiency with appropriate difficulty. The course focuses on developing reading skills including pre-reading, skimming and scanning as well as building and developing a working English vocabulary. Students also write responses to the stories they read and share their reflections with their classmates.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 004 -  High Intermediate ESL Reading  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course uses a variety of authentic, meaningful and stimulating ESL readings. The course focuses on developing critical reading strategies, skimming and scanning abilities, increadsing reading speed, building academic vocabulary power, drawing inferences, previewing, predicting and finding the main idea. Students will build successful reading strategies to comprehend language and concepts presented in college textbooks.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 005 -  Advanced ESL Reading  

This course is not for native speakers of English. In this course, students read a variety of authentic, meaningful and stimulating texts in order to help students develop ciritical reading strategies, increase reading speed and build academic vocabulary. The goal of this class is to prepare students with successful ESL reading strategies to compehend language and concepts that students will encounter in university level textbooks through a variety of disciplines as is required by a liberal studies curriculum.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 011 -  Start ESL Listening  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course helps students with basic ESL listening needs in daily life situations. Students develop their listening and speaking skills in order to interact with others. Emphasis is also placed on recognizing different sounds in American English.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 012 -  Basic ESL Listening  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course helps students with basic ESL listening needs in daily life and basic academic situations. Focus is on listening comprehension, with students developing their listening and speaking skills in order to interact with others.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 013 -  Intermediate ESL Listening I  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course helps students with basic ESL listening needs in daily life and basic academic situations. Focus is on interpersonal communication skills in spoken American English. The course focuses on a variety of listening comprehension skills and strategies in order for students to become more effective listeners in a variety of settings.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 014 -  High Intermediate ESL Listening  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course prepares students for the demands of college-level academic listening tasks. The course aims to enhance students' ESL listening skills and to provide strategies and practice for listening to instructors and classmates who use a variety of speech patterns and vocabulary in class lectures and discussion.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 015 -  Advanced ESL Listening  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course prepares students for the demands of college-level academic listening tasks. The course aims to enhance students' ESL listening skills and to provide strategies and practice for listening to instructors and classmates who use a variety of speech patterns and vocabulary in class lectures and discussion. Students will practice listening to lectures from a variety of academic disciplines and will analyze the material that they hear. Students will also practice strategies for active participation in lectures and class discussion.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 021 -  Start ESL Writing  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course provides basic ESL writing instruction for beginning level English language learners. Students will work on sentence and short-paragraphy length writing to express their ideas in English.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 022 -  Basic ESL Writing  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course helps ESL students learn how to generate topics and write paragraph length discourse. There is also an emphasis on reading to understand writing styles and organization strategies. Students develop writing fluency by keeping a journal of American English essays throughout the semester.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 023 -  Intermediate ESL Writing  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course helps students learn to generate topics and write paragraph length ESL discourse. Sentence structure and writing conventions of academic American English are also explored. Students will study application of vocabulary and grammar skills for writing and practice reading to understand writing better.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 024 -  High Intermediate ESL Writing  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course prepares students to write academic papers by exploring elements of academic writing and its process. Students generate topics, write cohesive paragraphs, use organizational strategies and learn to consider audience. Students also explore self-expression and writing identity through ESL journal writing.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 025 -  Advanced ESL Writing  

This course is not for native speakers of English. In this course, students learn to write for a variety of purposes considering their audience. Lessons include developing appropriate writing styles and applying organizational strategies for different styles of texts. Students practice the writing process and practice prewriting, revision and editing. Students also learn about the U.S. academic expectations of writers, including appropriate citation practices and the importance of avoiding plagiarism. Students also learn strategies to improve their writing through self and peer review.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 031 -  Start ESL Speaking  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course emphasizes interpersonal ESL communication at a beginning level. Class meetings center around speaking activities that encourage fluency. Some attention will also be given to cultural considerations, pronunciation and conversation strategies.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 032 -  Basic ESL Speaking  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course emphasizes interpersonal ESL communication with some focus on academic speech. Class meetings center around speaking activities that encourage fluency and comprehensibility. The class will help students set realistic goals for their pronunciation practices and learning strategies to improve their comprehensibility and confidence in speaking English.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 033 -  Intermediate ESL Speaking  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course is designed to help students develop their own identity as an ESL speaker and user. In this course, students draw on their background knowledge of conversation skills from their primary language while they explore standard conventions in American English. The class will help students set realistic goals for their pronunciation studies and learn strategies to improve their comprehensibility and confidence in speaking English.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 034 -  High Intermediate ESL Speaking  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course helps students explore the dynamic of ESL communication between different cultures. It provides students with strategies to communicate with people from different cultures and provides opportunities for students to interact with speakers from different cultural backgrounds. The emphasis of the class is oral communication, but students also learn about nonverbal communication and develop reading and writing skills.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 035 -  Advanced ESL Speaking  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course is designed to enhance students' academic language skills to help them be successful in U.S. college courses. Students will learn to participate effectively in a variety of academic situations, such as discussions, lectures, study groups, team-projects and debates. The students will acquire a number of study skills including note-taking, brainstorming, problem-solving and pragmatic strategies for participating in class discussions.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 041 -  Introduction to American English Grammar  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course presents the basics of American English grammar with an emphasis on conversational strategies.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 042 -  Basic American Grammar  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course presents the basics of American English grammar with an emphasis on the sources from authentic written texts.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 043 -  Intermediate American English Grammar  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course is designed to reinforce and refine knowledge of common grammatical structures. Students will increase their familiarity with and use of standard grammatical structures. Emphasis will be placed on grammatical structures common to academic speech and writing.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 044 -  High Intermediate American English Grammar  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course is designed to reinforce and refine knowledge of common grammatical structures. Students will increase their familiarity with and use of standard grammatical structures. Emphasis will be placed on grammatical structures common to academic speech and writing.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 045 -  Advanced American English Grammar  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course is designed to develop the abilities needed to use a variety of grammatical structures effectively and efficiently. The emphasis is on academic English in oral and written communication.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 051 -  Introduction to American Culture  

This course is not for native speakers of English. In this course, students learn about U.S. culture and explore resources available in the community of Slippery Rock, PA. students study pragmatic strategies to help them have successful interactions with others in the Slippery Rock community.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 052 -  Exploring American Culture I  

This course is not for native speakers of English. In this course, students learn about American life on campus and in the town and region. Students will learn to use the resources available at SRU and in Slippery Rock and Pittsburgh area. The aim of the course is to help students adjust more quickly and completely to living and studying in America and at SRU.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 053 -  Exploring American Culture II  

This course is not for native speakers of English. In this course, students learn about American life on campus and in the town of Slippery Rock and the Pittsburgh region. Students will compare culutural perspectives from around the world. In addition, students will explore academic culture at SRU and learn to use the resources available at SRU.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 054 -  Understanding American Culture  

This course is not for native speakers of English. In this course, students learn about American life on campus and in the town and region. Students will compare cultural perspectives from around the world. In addition, students will explore academic culture at SRU and learn to use the resources available at SRU. By exploring culture through a variety of activities, both in and outside of the classroom, students develop a repertoire of listening, speaking, reading and writing strategies for effective interactions in the U.S.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 055 -  Living in America  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course exposes students to a combination of American history and culture. Students will explore a variety of cultural topics and historical events. A multimedia approach will be used to develop cultural awareness. The class will encourage students to engage in open communication concerning their understandings and assumptions about life in the U.S. Students will participate in group projects in which they present cultural and historical backgrounds about important U.S. events or practices. Students will also explore the implication of U.S. history and culture for university life.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 061 -  ESL Tutorial I  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course is a required tutorial. ESL tutoring provides inidividualized attention for students' language learning needs by pairing them with SRU students for small group instruction and interactions.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 062 -  ESL Tutorial II  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course is a required tutorial. ESL tutoring provides individualized attention for students' language learning needs by pairing them with SRU students for small group instruction.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 063 -  ESL Tutorial III  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course is a required tutorial. ESL tutoring provides individualized attention for students' language learning needs by pairing them with SRU students for small group instruction.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 064 -  ESL Tutorial IV  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course is a required tutorial. ESL tutoring provides individualized attention for students' language learning needs by pairing them with SRU students for small group instruction.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed

ESL 065 -  Independent Seminar  

This course is not for native speakers of English. This course is a self-driven, student-oriented academic ESL practice session. In the beginning of a semester, each student meets with the director about their study plan in an American university and the director assigns a semester-long task. In the middle and at the end of a semester, the student must report the progress and the outcome of the study to the director.

Credits: 0

Term(s) Typically Offered: Offered as Needed