Prepare for Presessional

Highlights

Prepare for Presessional is our 5-week online pre-arrival course, available for you to license and use with your own international students.

Prepare for Presessional is a 5-week course that is designed to prepare students for the academic English demands of university. It is aimed at those who have achieved an IELTS score of at least 5.0 in reading and writing.

The course was developed by the eLanguages team and is available to licence by other institutions. Please contact us for more information regarding licensing.

Prepare for Presessional covers basic concepts and preparation in academic writing; reading and critical thinking; vocabulary; grammar and developing students' study skills. It also includes tutor-facilitated discussion activities and provision for weekly chat sessions. Each week there is a reading or writing assignment and a grammar and vocabulary self-test. Course guidelines, marking sheets and tutoring notes are provided, and full access is given to student activity reports on the course platform.

All course learning materials are provided and hosted on a bespoke course platform at the University of Southampton; the licensing university can upload their students and tutor their own course at a cost per cohort, based on groups of up to 30 students. There are discounted rates for larger numbers of students and for longer-term contracts.

User feedback

I've used P4P on two occasions and have found the course to be a very useful package - solid materials, a clearly structured progression, and great support from the Team at eLanguages. We were able to layer on activities and assessments to tailor the course to our institution and had great feedback from students. - Dr Steven White, Academic Practice and Development Manager, Arts University Bournemouth

The course focuses on English language development for international students who particularly need to improve their academic writing and reading skills (it is recommended for students who have obtained an IELTS score of 5.0 or 5.5 in reading and/or writing). It covers basic concepts and preparation in academic writing; reading and critical thinking; vocabulary and grammar and developing students' study skills awareness.

In addition to all course learning materials, Prepare for Presessional includes tutor-facilitated discussion activities and provision for weekly chat sessions. Each week there is a reading or writing assignment and a grammar and vocabulary self-test. Course guidelines, marking sheets and tutoring notes are provided, and full access is given to student activity reports on the course platform.

The course runs for a period of 5 weeks at a time of year of your choosing. Licences are available starting from £3000 for a first student cohort. Discounts are available for multiple cohorts and for longer licensing periods. Customisation Please contact the eLanguages team for further information.

Student and tutor feedback

"(The online course is) a chance to start with academic skills before the presessional course...especially in writing." (student)
"The feedback showed me where is my weak[ness], where is my strength, I like this course." (student)
"What is mostly apparent is that X quickly recognises what I am teaching, she tends to grasp the point before the other students. In these situations it is apparent that she has prior knowledge of the topics I introduce to the class." (class tutor commenting on student's progress after the online course)
"She's the best in the class, pure and simple...right from the beginning the very first writing task they do on the first day she had proper structure, her paragraphs were organised and had some logic." (class tutor commenting on student's progress after the online course)