English language studies for people with English as a second language. Study online and improve your English speaking and writing skills.

• Develop a better understanding of how English differs to other languages.

• Improve your ability to communicate in English; through both written and verbal communication.

Prerequisites

The student should to be able to read, write and speak elementary or basic conversational English.

Course Structure and Lesson Content

There are 12 lessons in this module, each requiring around 8 hours of writing. They are:

1.  Parts of speech 

• Introduction

• Parts of speech ... nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, etc

• Gender; noun gender, pronoun gender

• Adjectives; types of adjectives

• Articles; definite and indefinite

• When to Use an article

2.  Verbs 

• Verb phrases

• Auxiliary or Helping Verbs

• Subject - Verb Agreement

• Gerunds

• Verb Mood

• Verb Tense

• Present, Past, Mixed, Future Tense

• Verb Voice

3.  Parts of a sentence 

• Object 

• Clauses and phrases 

• Subject and Predicate

• Roles of a Verb in a Sentence; transitive verbs, Intransitive verbs

4.  Building and combining sentences 

• Sentence Construction

• Basic Sentence Patterns

• Verb Position in a Sentence

• Forming Questions

• Expanding Basic Sentence

• Adding Modifying Words, Clauses or Phrases

• Linking words

5.  Vocabulary 

• Related words 

• Word origins 

• Prefixes 

• Suffixes 

• Word combinations

6.  Developing vocabulary 

• Context 

• Formal and informal language 

• Connotative and denotative language

7.  Writing for different purposes Part 1 

• Writing to obtain and clarify information 

• Purpose

• Your Reader

• Content 

• Method of Communicating

• Guidelines for Effective Writing in English

• Tips for Requesting and Clarifying Information

8.  Writing for different purposes Part 2 

• Informative Writing Goals

• Writing to provide information

• What Else are You Communicating; Information, attitude, relationship

•  Tips for Providing Information; good, neutral or bad news

• Persuasion

9.  Writing for business 

• Writing letters 

• Short reports 

• Submissions

10.  Study skills 

• Understanding concepts 

• Essay structure 

• Addressing all parts of a topic 

• Understanding what is required 

• Referencing

11.  Proof reading and editing 

• Correcting and refining your document 

• Targeting the intended reader

12.  Special project 

• Reading 

• Researching and writing for three different contexts (work, study, business).

COURSE AIMS

• Understand the basic rules of grammar

• Apply rules of grammar to construct correct sentences

• Identify word parts - word roots, prefixes and suffixes

• Use word parts to develop vocabulary

• Name the parts of speech

• Understand basic principles of correct sentence construction

• Understand the nature and purpose of a paragraph

• Identify different kinds of language - formal/informal, direct/indirect

• Identify appropriate language for different writing contexts

• Use correct formats for business writing

• Use correct formats for writing for study

• Improve pronunciation

What You Will Do In This Course

Students will learn:

• Basic principles and terms of English grammar.

• The parts of speech in English, and the forms in which they can be used.

• How to correctly use parts of speech, including as adverbs and pronouns.

• What the basic building blocks of English sentences are.

• How to construct correct sentences.

• How to vary sentence structure.

• What is a paragraph, and how to construct one.

• Common work roots and how they are used to create different English words.

• The role and meanings of suffixes and prefixes.

• When and how to use direct (denotative) and indirect (connotative) language in business or study.

• How to write correctly for different purposes.

• Correct business writing.

• How to respond appropriately to different study tasks.

• Different writing formats for workplace and study.

• How and why to reference.

• How to edit a piece of writing to improve its organisation and readability.

• How to proof read a piece of writing to eliminate errors.

• What to consider when planning a piece of writing.

Duration 100 hours -study at your own pace-where you want and when you want.

How to Understand Communication in English

When you communicate in English, you are utilizing a series of components that are joined together at various levels, to build up a communication event.

Words are often derived from two or more parts (e.g. prejudice is made up of two parts: "pre" meaning before, and "judice" meaning judging. Prejudice thus means "judging before", or having a proper basis upon which to judge.

Words are combined to form clauses, clauses are combined to form sentences, and sentences combine to create paragraphs.

Every sentence should be constructed as a collection of words that expresses a largely singular, coherent thought.

Sentences that attempt to express a multitude of different thoughts in the same sentence can become difficult to comprehend; and the less related the thoughts are, the more incoherent it becomes.

There is a System and Rules that Govern how Words are Combined

For anyone coming to English as a second language, they will be familiar with the system and rules that govern the way in which words are combined in their native language. The first big step toward understanding English, is to recognise that the system and rules that apply to their native language will differ to the one that needs to be used with English.

Often people learn the words that equate with those in their own language; but do not recognise the system differences. That lack of recognition can make it much harder to communicate in English.

Sentences are made up of clauses.

Clauses are a group of words which together for a single thought such as an impression of something happening or an image of something you might see or touch.

Sometimes a sentence has only one clause in it. At other times, a sentence has 2 or more clauses in it.

There are two kinds of clauses – dependent and independent.  

Dependent Clauses

Dependent clauses are fragments of a sentence and lose their meaning when they stand alone. They are always connected to an independent clause. 

For example, ‘she began to moan’, is the dependent clause in the following sentence:

‘When she finished the plate of food, she began to moan.’

Independent Clauses

An independent clause is the main part of the sentence and will often be joined to a dependent clause.  The independent clause, however, can stand alone as a self-contained sentence.

For example:
‘She is a cardiologist’, is an independent clause.  It is structurally sound when used as a stand alone sentence.  It can also be built up with a dependent clause:

‘She is a cardiologist who should have been a butcher instead.’ 

Independent clauses and dependent clauses are often linked by joining words such as who, when, where, that, since, as and because.  These joining words can be relative pronouns or subordinating conjunctions.

Enrol Now

If you would like to improve your English skills, why not enrol now?

Or, if you have any questions or want to know more about the course, please get in touch with us now by

Phone (International) +61 7 5562 1088 or (in Australia) 07 5562 1088, or

Email us at admin@acs.edu.au, or connect with our specialist tutors using our 

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