ENGLISH ORAL PROFICIENCY AND AMERICAN CULTURE WORKSHOP
AUGUST 6 - AUGUST 31, 2012
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Do you want to improve your spoken English? Come to Santa Barbara in August! This one-month intensive workshop will help you develop English oral proficiency skills and acquaint you with American culture and society. Besides getting your English language skills up to speed, you will have a chance to meet new friends, enjoy Santa Barbara’s beaches, and visit popular Southern California tourist sites. Daily English classes are taught by ESL professionals. Introduction to American Culture and Society is taught by a UCSB faculty member.
THE ACADEMIC PROGRAM
English Speaking Skills for Academic Success
Monday through Friday, 4 Hours Per Day
This is an oral skills practical training course intended for those who have little or no experience living in an English language cultural environment. The focus is on developing listening comprehension and speaking skills needed for effective participation in American university classrooms and the larger academic community. The coursework is designed to create greater fluency, improve pronunciation, expand academic vocabulary, as well as improve listening and question/response skills. Class activities will include small-group discussions and problem solving, vocabulary building and pronunciation exercises, oral presentations, and listening tasks. Class size will be limited to 15 students to ensure attention to individual needs as well as individual conference time with the instructor. For graduate students who must take an oral proficiency exam required of prospective teaching assistants, this course will help you develop fluency, accurate pronunciation and classroom presentation skills in preparation for that exam. For all other students, the course will prepare you to communicate and understand complex ideas in English in any academic setting.
Introduction to American Culture and Society
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2 Hours Per Day
This class will provide an introduction to academic institutions, cultural discourses, and social life in the US. We will look closely at the history and politics of California. We will see how everyday interactions shape social conventions that define public life and group behavior compared to different cultural practices in other countries. We will read a book on California history and culture at a level of difficulty that you are likely to encounter in a regular US university course. We will meet with university faculty and administrators to acquaint you with US academic and institutional norms. We will not sit in the classroom the whole time, but will go outside on campus and in the surrounding area to see how the content of the course relates to real life experiences and observations.
CREDIT and PREREQUISITES: All workshop participants will receive 11 quarter units of in-service credit through the UCSB Extension on a pass/ no pass basis. These unit credits may not be transferable to your regular academic program and may not fulfill any requirements for your degree. Students who are not enrolling at a University of California campus for the 2012 fall quarter need to submit a copy of their TOEFL or IELTS score with this application. (Please note the minimum passing score for the TOEFL exam is internet 79; computer 213; paper-based 550. For the IELTS, the minimum passing score is a band score of 7.)
LIFE OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
The University of California, Santa Barbara is the perfect place to spend the month of August. The campus is right on the beach and close to some of the most popular tourist spots in the US. Workshop participants will have plenty of free time to make new friends and explore the natural beauty of the Santa Barbara seashore and nearby coastal mountain range. You will have a pass to use the campus recreational facilities that include swimming pools, tennis courts, aerobic equipment, free weights, simulated rock climbing, and much more. A weekly film night will feature American movies that compliment the themes covered in the Introduction to American Culture and Society. You will have your choice of two or three weekend excursion packages that will take you to such exciting places like the Universal Studios theme park and whale watching out in the ocean near the Santa Barbara Channel Islands.
RESIDENTIAL OPTIONS
Workshop participants, who want to, can purchase a residential plan at the Tropicana Del Norte Apartments at 6525 El Colegio Road, Goleta, CA – just a 5-minute walk to the UCSB campus, shops, food outlets, and the vibrant student community of Isla Vista.
Good Food
Tropicana residents receive three meals a day as part of the room and board plan. The complex is equipped with a café that serves international cuisine, vegetarian entrees, and accommodates special requests.
Facilities
Tropicana apartments are configured into three-bedroom furnished suites with a common living room. All workshop participants will share a room. Tropicana Del Norte has a quiet 24-hour study lounge with Internet access, a kitchenette, a large laundry room, a swimming pool, a recreation room, and a large theater-style screen room with a large screen TV. Linen is furnished for the period of the program. All suites will have a scheduled cleaning during the course of the workshop.
APPLICATION, FEES and DEADLINES
If you are a current UCSB student/scholar or if you will be coming to UCSB for Fall 2012, you will apply to the workshop as a UCSB participant.
If you are not a UCSB student, you will apply as an Other Participant.