Pre-Foundation courses are designed to develop the skills needed to progress to the Foundation program of international universities, these courses may address one or several skills required from language, mathematics, and critical thinking to mention some, and the length varies from months to an academic year.

Pre-Foundation Course International Agriculture University

This course will allow students of year 11 or those who already are enrolled in year one in local universities to increase their English Language Skills, to start with basic digital and communication skills as well as to have direct entrance to the university.

As a logical path, Oxford English for Academic Purposes Level B1 Pre-Intermediate is proposed to give continuity to the course, the book consists of 10 units that cover important aspects of academic study subject areas. Additionally, students are going to have workshops, clubs and lectures on different topics such as digital and communication skills.

According to Cambridge University Press & Assessment (Knight, 2022), it is required around 100 to 150 academic hours to get from one CEFR level to the next. In this accordance 90 minutes classes are going to be conducted three times a week, for six months giving a total of 108 hours of guided study, it is expected that students are going to expand their learning through independent study, workshops and clubs attendance; additionally, two months of Exam preparation are going to be scheduled.

This course aims to improve students’ academic English abilities to improve their performance in the Foundation year. Through the development of reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities in several modalities and within English HE educational, subject-relevant agri-business vocabulary, and cultural settings, simultaneously an introduction to the norms of academic English will be offered.

Intended Learning Outcomes

ILO1: Show more confidence with the use of English regarding the subject-specific topics, concepts, and terminology associated with their future course of study.

ILO2: Plan an essay and structure a paragraph, as well as the review grammatical aspects of academic writing.

ILO3: Introduction of referencing system, including the formats for and usage of in-text citations and references.

ILO4: Individual and group presentations provided in English on a subject-specific basis.

ILO5: Use accepted modes of collecting and presenting data – written, visual and spoken – in English.

Learning, Teaching and Assessment

The module will be built around lessons that are designed to maximise student collaboration and engagement with the teacher. The sessions, which will be based on in-person activities like seminars, will be planned for a 30-week course at a rate of 90 minutes for each class, three times a week.

Writing: Focuses on some of the most important parts of academic writing such as describing visuals, and structure of sentences and paragraphs. Analysis paragraph structure, basic of summary writing, introduction and conclusion of an essay, different types of academic writings.

Reading: Use of extracts from academic textbooks, identification of important features of text (The main idea and identifying specific language, etc) At the end of the course the students will be able to respond critically to what they read.

Listening and Speaking: Focused on both the receptive and productive skills needed to be successful in an academic environment, focusing on listening to lectures and presentations, note taking and gradually moving in the participation in seminars, lectures, and presentations as well in the preparation of their presentations. This module covers communication strategies, Vocabulary acquisition, planning and note-taking.

Assessments will be provided in which Students will read a variety of texts from current trade journals on themes and issues relevant to future programme modules throughout the module in a variety of required tasks, including academic writing, the construction and conducting of interviews and surveys in the wider community, and presentation of those data. This will improve comprehension, introduce the development of critical reading and reasoning skills, and provide material for group-work, writing, and discussion. These and other analytical techniques will be used by students to educate and assist their written, oral, understanding, group, and product pitch presentations. The final evaluation process will take the form of a four skills exam. Every two units students are going to be assessed in terms of vocabulary, reading comprehension, listening and writing. A mid-term exam based on Cambridge B1 Preliminary exam (formerly known as PET) planned for week 15. Final exam based on IELTS exam planned to be on week 27.