EPS Courses

In the arrangement of the pacing of progress, EPS courses take ALTE's suggested number of guided teaching hours (see Table 4) as reference and divide the semester into three modules. In this respect, the whole semester equals approximately 370 hours to accomplish the outcomes driven from CEF level descriptors.

Table 4 ALTE suggested number of guided teaching hours needed to accomplish the outcomes driven from each CEF level descriptors

 (Teachers' Guide to the Common European Framework, n.d.)

Students who have passed the University Entrance Examination, but who are unable to pass the EPS English Proficiency Exam Stage I are allocated into one of the courses in the EPS which is appropriate to their language needs. The English Proficiency Exam Stage I is to place students at the right level. The courses, arranged in two semesters, are A1, A2, B1, and UB1. The education given in the English Preparatory School is divided into two halves in an academic year. Depending on their level of success, students can complete the English Preparatory School and go to their departments at the end of a semester or a year. Throughout each semester students are assessed with various evaluation tools. Success in these assessments allows them to pass to the next level. In order to sit the English Proficiency Exam Stage II, students must have passed B1 level. The students who have successfully passed the English Proficiency Exam Stage II are allowed to enter their chosen department. Students who are not able to pass this exam are placed into the UB1 course. These students are entitled to take the English Proficiency Exam Stage II again, at the end of the semester, regardless of their overall semester grade. However, those students who take UB1 course and do not fail from attendance will be able to sit the English Proficiency Exam Stage II and 10% of their overall grade is added to their Proficiency Exam result. It is advised that students attend classes regularly since there is a direct relation between attendance and success. The programs and details can be found in the table below. 

Table 5 Course Details

A1 course is designed to help students interact in a simple way, ask and answer simple questions about themselves, where they live, people they know, and things they have, initiate and respond to simple statements in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics, rather than relying purely on a very finite rehearsed, lexically-organised repertoire of situation-specific phrases. This then further develops to help students use simple every day polite forms of greeting and address; greet people, ask how they are and react to news; handle very short social exchanges; ask and answer questions about what they do at work and in their free time; make and respond to invitations; discuss what to do, where to go and make arrangements to meet; make and accept offers. With the help of this course students can also function ‘out and about’. At the end of this course students can make simple transactions in shops, post offices or banks; get simple information about travel; use public transport, ask for basic information, ask and give directions, and buy tickets. Students can also describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need

A2 course is designed to help students use simple every day polite forms of greeting and address; greet people, ask how they are and react to news; handle very short social exchanges; ask and answer questions about what they do at work and in their free time; make and respond to invitations; discuss what to do, where to go and make arrangements to meet; make and accept offers. With the help of this course students can also function ‘out and about’. At the end of this course students can make simple transactions in shops, post offices or banks; get simple information about travel; use public transport, ask for basic information, ask and give directions, and buy tickets. Students can also describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.

A2R course is designed intensely to help students use every day polite forms of greeting and address; greet people, ask how they are and react to news; handle short social exchanges; ask and answer questions about what they do at work and in their free time; make and respond to invitations; discuss what to do, where to go and make arrangements to meet; make and accept offers. With the help of this course students can also function ‘out and about’. At the end of this course students can make transactions in shops, post offices or banks; get simple information about travel; use public transport, ask for basic information, ask and give directions, and buy tickets. Students can also describe his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.

B1 course aims to help students maintain interaction and get across what they want to express in a range of contexts and follow the main points of extended discussion around them, provided that speech is clearly articulated in standard dialect. At the end of this course students can express the main point they want to make comprehensibly and keep going comprehensibly, even though they may have to pause for grammatical and lexical planning and repairing in free production. Students are also able to cope flexibly with problems in everyday life, for example coping with less routine situations on public transport; dealing with most situations likely to arise when making travel arrangements through an agent or when actually travelling; entering unprepared into conversations on familiar topics. Students can also produce a connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. They are able to describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

B1R course aims to focus on students’ specific needs to maintain interaction and get across what they want to express in a range of contexts and follow the main points of extended discussion around them, provided that speech is clear standard dialect. At the end of this course students can express the main point they want to make comprehensibly and keep going comprehensibly, even though they may have to pause for grammatical and lexical planning and repairing free production. Students are also able to cope more flexibly with problems in everyday life, for example coping with less routine situations on public transport; dealing with most situations likely to arise when making travel arrangements through an agent or when actually travelling; entering unprepared into conversations on familiar topics. Students can also produce a connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. They are able to describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

UB1 course aims to help students take messages communicating enquiries, explaining problems; provide concrete information required in an interview/consultation (e.g. describe symptoms to a doctor) but does so with limited precision; explain why something is a problem. At the end of the course students can summarise and give his or her opinion about a short story, article, talk, discussion, interview, or documentary and answer further questions of detail. Students are also able to carry out a prepared interview, checking and confirming information, though he/she may occasionally have to ask for repetition if the other person’s response is rapid or extended. Students can also describe how to do something, giving detailed instructions. Students are also able to exchange accumulated factual information on familiar routine and non-routine matters within his/her field with some confidence. Students are also able to produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.