The syllabus of this course has a multi-layered structure, which includes a comprehensive grammar and vocabulary syllabus, integrating listening, speaking, writing and reading. Regarding reading, emphasis will be put on comprehension, vocabulary knowledge and extensive reading, It aims at developing learning skills by involving them in task-based approach, by leading them to work autonomously with the dictionary and other language resources. It aims at improving students’ language skills and especially skills in reading comprehension. The texts for this course will help students improve their comprehension of diverse topics and subject areas (e.g., social science, natural science, and humanities) with various modes of discourse (e.g., exposition, narration, and argumentation). Students’ critical thinking and higher order comprehension skills are expected to improve as greater weight will be placed on inferential skills throughout the semester. The texts cover cultural aspects of contemporary English speaking countries helping their intercultural education. Writing is developed through a more in-depth study of grammatical structures and through further practice in writing techniques for paragraphs and, especially, the five-paragraph essay. Students continue to improve their ability to write a variety of sentence types and engage in peer critique and substantial revision.

The course aims to - develop students’ reading skills and their verbal ability - improve the use of vocabulary learning strategies during their readings and specific activities designed for vocabulary instruction. - develop students’ ability to become cognizant of the underlying processes of reading comprehension and will become better at using skills effective for comprehension of reading material. - improve students’ skills in identifying distinguishing features of passages, relate them to the function and context of the writing, and organize information in their answers. - make students demonstrate understanding of various grammatical structures from the text in both speaking and writing: To explain techniques for writing paragraphs, essays, journal, letter and creative writing and to emphasize the importance of editing in writing. - make students discuss, argue about different social and academic topics using English language grammatically correct.