English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Program
EAP Program Overview
The English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program at the American University of Malta (AUM) is designed to help students who do not meet the required level of English proficiency to study for an Undergraduate and or Graduate Degree program. Upon successful completion of their EAP program, students can then enrol in their chosen program of study.
Our EAP teachers provide thorough guidance for students to develop their fluency and accuracy in Speaking, as well as Writing thus the EAP students are prepared to express themselves eloquently and powerfully. Students work on their Listening and Reading skills so that they can study or work comfortably in a native English speaking, academic environment. EAP program introduces various note taking and study methods and prepares for conducting research in English.
Program Details
We currently offer three EAP levels at the American University of Malta. Intake of student is done according to AUM Calendar. All learning materials are included in the course fee. Maximum Class size: 15. Range of activities and excursions included.
MQF Level 3 - EAP 94
Program Details
Program length: 200 hours
Credits needed to earn the degree: 8 ECTS
Degree level: MQF Level 3
Entry requirements
The Award in English for Academic Purposes: Pre-Intermediate Level course is designed for students who have completed the level 2 elementary course at AUM or tested into this level through a placement exam. This course has a minimum placement test score of 2.9 on the iTEP Placement Core exam. This test will be administered upon arrival at the university.
Learning Outcomes for Communication Skills
for the whole course,
Learning outcomes include:
a) Speaking Skills:
– Taking conversational turns
– Giving advice
– Asking for and giving reasons
– Giving and supporting opinions
– Giving a short presentation
– Leading a group discussion
b) Pronunciation:
– Contractions with auxiliary verbs
– Links with /j/ and /w/
– Intonation in tag questions
– Intonation in questions
– Contraction of had
– Stress on important verbs
c) Writing Skills:
– Organizing and developing a paragraph
– Using descriptive adjectives
– Writing a summary and a personal response
– Writing an opinion essay
– Writing a narrative essay
– Stating reasons and giving examples
Learning Outcomes for Learning to Learn Skills for the whole course,
The learner will acquire the following:
a) Listening:
– Students will be able to discern and restate meaning from academic lectures, both verbally and in writing, by gathering information through detailed and organized notes.
– Students will be able to listen for time markers, for cause and effects, identifying fact or opinion, distinguishing between cardinal and ordinal numbers, and inferring a speaker’s attitude.
b) Speaking:
– Students will be able to effectively communicate both formally and informally through group discussions and presentations. Additionally, students will enunciate in a manner that helps the listener understand.
– Students will be able to give advice, take conversational turns, ask and give reasons, giving and supporting opinions.
c) Reading:
– Students will be able to apply the following reading strategies: previewing, skimming, scanning, identifying main ideas and supporting details, distinguishing facts from opinion, and use referents to understand contrast. This will be assessed by comprehension questions.
– Students will be able to take notes and use graphic organizers.
– Students will be able to comprehend a variety of social and academic texts by reading orally and silently in class and assessed through comprehension questions formally and informally.
d) Vocabulary:
– Students will be able to recognize and use a broad set of social and academic vocabulary words in all four skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, that are most common in the English language, gathered from the Oxford 3000 list.
– Students will be able to use a dictionary to identify word forms, the dictionary, and context clues to understand words.
– Students will become familiar with a variety of suffixes, phrasal verbs, and synonyms in order to expand formal and informal vocabulary and interpret meaning of unknown words while reading and listening.
e) Grammar:
– Students will be able to identify diverse grammatical errors while editing their own writing or peer editing.
– Students will be able to understand the use and placement of adjectives in writing and speaking.
– Students will be able to form simple, compound sentences, and parallel structure using the following grammatical structures: real conditionals: present and future, shifts between past and present time frames, gerunds and infinitives in writing, classroom discussions, and speaking opportunities.
f) Writing:
– Students will be able to follow the steps of the writing process to construct a paragraph and essay by brainstorming, creating an outline, and writing a summary at a pre-intermediate level.
– Students will be able to edit and revise their own work and works of peers using standard editing markings.
– Students will be able to create various types of paragraphs including: ‘how to’, descriptive, and personal response paragraph which will be assessed using an appropriate rubric for each.
– Students will be able to create various types of essays, including: opinion, narrative, and analysis essays which will be assessed using an appropriate rubric for each.
– Students will be able to develop keyboarding skills on the computer, using typing.com, in preparation for writing academic papers.
MQF Level 4 - EAP 96
Program Details
Program length: 200 hours
Credits needed to earn the degree: 8 ECTS
Degree level: MQF Level 4
Entry requirements
The Award in English for Academic Purposes: Intermediate Level course is designed for students who have completed the level 3 intermediate course at AUM or tested into this level through a placement exam. This course has a minimum placement test score of 3.5 on the iTEP Placement Core exam. This test will be administered upon arrival at the university.
Learning Outcomes for Communication Skills
for the whole course,
Learning outcomes include:
a) Speaking Skills:
– Agreeing and disagreeing
– Asking for and giving clarification
– Checking for understanding
– Confirming understanding
– Giving a presentation
b) Pronunciation:
– Intonation in different types of sentences
– Varying intonation to maintain interest
– Syllable stress
– Unstressed syllables
– Sentence stress
c) Writing Skills:
– Writing a cause/effect essay
– Writing an argumentative essay
– Organizing and developing an essay
– Writing a descriptive essay
– Writing a narrative essay and varying sentence patterns
Learning Outcomes for Learning to Learn Skills for the whole course,
The learner will acquire the following:
a) Listening:
– Students will be able to discern and restate meaning from academic lectures, both verbally and in writing, by gathering information through detailed and organized notes.
– Students will be able to listen for signposts, examples, main ideas, identify details, and make predictions from recorded lectures and conversations.
– Students will be able to take effective notes from lectures and how to edit those notes after the listening exercise or lecture.
b) Speaking:
– Students will be able to effectively communicate both formally and informally through group discussions and presentations. Additionally, students will enunciate in a manner that helps the listener understand.
– Students will be able to give presentations on a variety of topics in front of the class, be able to agree and disagree verbally, ask for and give clarification, check for understanding, confirm understanding with classmates and instructors.
– Students will be able to use syllable stress, use a varying intonation to maintain interest, and use intonation in different types of sentences.
c) Reading:
– Students will be able to apply the following reading strategies: previewing, skimming, scanning, predicting, and making inferences from context. This will be assessed by comprehension questions.
– Students will be able to comprehend a variety of social and academic texts when reading orally and silently in class which will be assessed through comprehension questions formally and informally.
d) Vocabulary:
– Students will be able to recognize and use a broad set of social and academic vocabulary words in all four skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, that are most common in the English language, gathered from the Oxford 3000 list.
– Students will be able to understand meaning from context by using context clues, understanding prefixes and suffixes, recognizing collocations with nouns and adjectives with prepositions while listening and reading.
e) Grammar:
– Students will be able to identify diverse grammatical errors and sentence fragments while editing their own writing or peer editing.
– Students will be able to use definite and indefinite articles verbally and in writing.
– Students will be able to form simple, compound, and complex sentences; use restrictive relative clauses, a variety of phrasal verbs, and construct and use past perfect and past perfect continuous in writing and verbally in classroom discussions and speaking opportunities.
f) Writing:
– Students will be able to follow the steps of the writing process to construct academic essays by brainstorming, creating an outline, writing summaries, and formatting the essays appropriately for academic writing at an intermediate level.
– Students will be able to edit and revise their own work and works of peers using standard editing markings.
– Students will be able to create various types of essays, including: cause and effect, argumentative, analysis, descriptive, and narrative essays which will be assessed using an appropriate rubric for each.
– Students will be able to develop keyboarding skills on the computer, using typing.com, in preparation for writing academic papers.
MQF Level 5 - EAP 98
Program Details
Program length: 200 hours
Credits needed to earn the degree: 8 ECTS
Degree level: MQF Level 5
Entry requirements
The Award in English for Academic Purposes: High-Intermediate Level course is designed for students who have completed the level 4 intermediate course at AUM or tested into this level through a placement exam. This course has a minimum placement test score of 3.9 on the iTEP Placement Core exam. This test will be administered upon arrival at the university.
Learning Outcomes for Communication Skills for the whole course,
Learning outcomes include:
a) Speaking Skills:
– Present a business plan
– Take part in a debate
– Changing the topic
– Using questions to maintain listener’s interest
– Adding to another speaker’s comments
b) Pronunciation:
– Answering questions
– Other common intonation patterns
– Basic intonation patterns
– Highlighted words
– Thought groups
c) Writing Skills:
– Essay brainstorm, outline, and format
– Writing compare and contrast essays
– Writing cause and effect essays
– Writing a summary
– Writing an opinion essay
– Citing sources (APA)
– Writing a persuasive essay
Learning Outcomes for Learning to Learn Skills for the whole course,
The learner will acquire the following:
a) Listening:
– Students will be able to discern and restate meaning from academic lectures, both verbally and in writing, by gathering information through detailed and organized notes.
– Students will be able to listen for bias, contrasting ideas, signal words and phrases, for causes and effects, and making inferences from recorded lectures and conversations.
– Students will be able to take effective notes from lectures and how to edit those notes after the listening exercise or lecture.
b) Speaking:
– Students will be able to effectively communicate both formally and informally through group discussions and presentations. Additionally, students will enunciate in a manner that helps the listener understand.
– Students will be able to make academic presentations on a variety of topics in front of the class, express interest during a conversation, take part in a debate, and create questions to maintain listeners’ interest.
c) Reading:
– Students will be able to apply the following reading strategies: previewing, skimming, scanning, inferring from context, and using an outline. This will be assessed by comprehension questions, creating outlines, and summary writing.
– Students will be able to understand compare and contrast organization, understanding the purpose of quoted speech, recognize bias, and identify counter arguments and refutations.
– Students will be able to comprehend a variety of social and academic texts by reading orally and silently in class, and are assessed through comprehension questions formally and informally.
d) Vocabulary:
– Students will be able to recognize and use a broad set of social and academic vocabulary words in all four skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, that are most common in the English language, gathered from the Oxford 3000 list.
– Students will be able to recognize context, root words, word forms, affixes, and parts of speech in order to expand formal and informal vocabulary and interpret meaning of unknown words while reading and listening.
e) Grammar:
– Students will be able to identify diverse grammatical errors while editing their own writing or peer editing.
– Students will be able to use subordinators and transitions to compare and contrast using comparative forms of adjectives and adjectives in their writings and essays.
– Students will be able to form simple, compound, complex, and compound complex sentences using the following grammatical structures: present perfect, present perfect continuous, passive voice, reported speech, indirect speech, real conditionals, adverb clauses, and adverb phrases in writing, classroom discussions, and speaking opportunities.
f) Writing:
– Students will be able to follow the steps of the writing process to construct academic essays by brainstorming, creating an outline, writing summaries, and formatting the essays appropriately for academic writing at a high-intermediate level.
– Students will be able to edit and revise their own work and works of peers using standard editing markings.
– Students will be able to create various types of essays, including: compare and contrast, cause and effect, opinion essay, and persuasive essays which will be assessed using an appropriate rubric for each.
– Students will be able to understand and use basic APA citation skills as demonstrated in research writing.
– Students will be able to develop keyboarding skills on the computer, using typing.com, in preparation for writing academic papers.
EAP 94
ELEMENTARY
TO
PRE-INTERMEDIATE
EAP 96
PRE-INTERMEDIATE
TO
INTERMEDIATE
EAP 98
INTERMEDIATE
TO
HIGH-INTERMEDIATE
Program Duration:
8 weeks / level
Program Schedule:
Monday – Thursday
Class Duration:
5 hours per day
Class Size:
Max 15
COURSE DATES & APPLICATION DEADLINES
Intake of prospect Students are as per AUM Calendar
Progression
Students who want to pursue either bachelor’s or masters level programs at AUM may need to pass English for Academic Purposes course, if they have not reached the required level outlined in the admissions section under entry requirements. For institutional integrity, students should progress through all levels of the EAP program in a defined and reasonable length of time. Students who are unable to pass all the EAP levels within appropriate timeframe may be dismissed from AUM. At the time of enrolment, the admissions department will assess the English competence of the prospective student, asking for official IELTS documents or those from similar systems such as TOEFL.
If the student’s certification is below the desired level of competence, but the student meets all other admissions requirements, he/she is conditionally enrolled at AUM, and upon successful completion of the EAP program he/she is registered for credit courses as a regular student. If the student does not have an English language certification and is deemed by admissions to require additional English tutoring, he/she will be referred to the director of EAP for testing. It is compulsory for all conditionally admitted students to enrol in the EAP program.
The progression of students to the next level is dependent on achieving the required test score and attendance of no less than 75 %.
General assessment procedures.
Informal assessment is carried out throughout each class as part of the English language teaching process. Participation in class is weighted less than 10% of the overall grade. Formal assessments are done regularly throughout the course. Forms of assessment consist of, but are not limited to, the following methods:
Initial Assessment:
– iTEP Placement Core is the tool used to place students into the proper course. Reading, Listening, Sentence Structure, and Vocabulary are tested on a computer and graded by iTEP. Writing is assessed using a rubric. All 5 scores are taken into consideration in determining course placement.
Formative Assessment:
– In class exercises, multiple-choice, writing, class participation during the instruction given with each unit enables the instructor to adjust or clarify the lessons. Participation is the only aspect of the Formative Assessment that is weighted. Homework and participation make up 10% of the overall grade for the course. Feedback will be given on homework and in-class assignments, daily. Consistent Instructor feedback during class-time participation is part of the assessment process.
Summative Assessment:
– At the end of each unit, students are assessed in all four skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. These unit exams are weighted and make up 60% of the grade for the session. Comprehensive final exams in all four skills are given at the end of the session and counts for 30% of the course. Consistent Instructor feedback is part of the assessment process. An exit exam is also given using the iTEP Placement Core. Students must fall within a range that is close to the university English proficiency requirement to enter the university’s undergraduate or graduate programmes.
Assessment Procedures:
– Assessment procedures fall in line with English language teaching standards and include, but not limited to the following: Cloze exercises, multiple-choice, matching, sentence writing, summarizing – written and spoken, paragraph writing, essay writing, presentations, interviews, dictation, circling and underlining text, etc.
Contact the Admissions Office
Charif Massine
Recruitment & Admissions Officer
Nada Charaf
Recruitment & Admissions Assistant
If you have any questions about the admissions process, make sure to contact our admissions team.
Email: admissions@aum.edu.mt