PROGRAM STRUCTURE
The English Preparatory Program consists of four levels. Students are placed into the appropriate level based on their results in the English Placement Test administered at the beginning of the academic year. The levels offered in the program and their durations are as follows:
Beginner - Elementary Level (CEFR: A1/A2) (GSE: 10-36)
Overall Description
The Elementary level course is designed for learners transitioning from basic English toward greater confidence and independence in everyday communication. Students build on foundational skills in vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. By the end of this level, learners can manage familiar tasks related to personal information, daily routines, and immediate needs, using simple grammar and vocabulary accurately in predictable contexts. The GSE-aligned curriculum emphasizes both accuracy and communicative competence, providing structured practice through coursebooks, supplementary materials, writing exercises, and online assignments.
Reading (GSE: 10-35)
Students develop the ability to understand simple texts, such as descriptions, forms, and short narratives. Early objectives include recognizing basic phrases and identifying predictable information. As proficiency grows, learners can extract details, follow step-by-step instructions, and identify main ideas and supporting details in simple structured texts.
Listening (GSE: 10-36)
Listening skills progress from understanding very simple instructions and factual information delivered slowly and clearly, to following short dialogues and narratives in common contexts such as shopping, traveling, or meeting people. Learners gradually improve their ability to recognize key details such as names, numbers, times, and locations, and to understand simple relationships between speakers.
Speaking (GSE: 10-36)
Speaking development focuses on fluency and accuracy in basic exchanges. Students start by asking and answering questions about personal information using memorized phrases, then progress to describing people, places, and objects, expressing opinions, making simple requests, giving directions, and participating in short conversations on familiar topics.
Writing (GSE: 10-40)
Writing at this level begins with producing simple sentences about personal experiences and surroundings, and gradually advances to short descriptions, simple comparisons, and explanations using basic linking words. Learners develop the ability to write with coherence and clarity, applying vocabulary and grammar learned in class.
Grammar (GSE: 24-39)
Grammar instruction supports accurate use of high-frequency structures in both spoken and written English. Students learn verb forms such as the present simple, present continuous, and simple past, basic noun-verb agreement, question formation, articles, plural forms, adjectives, and imperative structures. By the end of the course, learners demonstrate control over these structures in familiar communicative contexts.
Vocabulary (GSE: 10-36)
Vocabulary development at the this level focuses on building a solid foundation of high-frequency words and expressions related to everyday topics such as personal information, daily routines, food, travel, and basic needs. Students learn to recognize and use common words and simple phrases in familiar contexts. Emphasis is placed on accurate usage, pronunciation, and understanding meaning through context. Repetition and controlled practice help learners gradually expand their lexical range and use vocabulary in simple spoken and written communication.
Pre-Intermediate Level (CEFR: A2/A2+) (GSE: 30-43)
Overall Description
The Pre-Intermediate level course builds on learners’ foundational knowledge from Elementary and supports their transition toward more autonomous and flexible English use. Students consolidate basic grammar and vocabulary while expanding their ability to understand and produce more complex language in social, academic, and everyday contexts. By the end of this level, learners can express opinions, describe experiences, and communicate with increasing independence and clarity, both in writing and speaking. The GSE-aligned curriculum includes structured practice in coursebooks, supplementary materials, writing exercises, and online tasks to ensure balanced skill development.
Reading (GSE: 30-46)
Learners engage with short, structured texts including everyday materials and simple academic passages. Early objectives involve understanding the general meaning and extracting key details. As learners progress, they can follow sequences of events, identify opinions, recognize purpose and tone, and make basic inferences. They also develop the ability to use cohesive devices and scan or skim texts for academic or practical tasks.
Listening (GSE: 32-47)
Listening activities at this level cover familiar conversations, real-life scenarios, and short talks. Students begin by following clear, simple speech and identifying key details such as time, frequency, and purpose. Progressing further, they comprehend everyday conversations, basic academic instructions, and workplace dialogues. At higher proficiency, learners can follow main ideas in short talks or interviews, even with some unfamiliar vocabulary. Listening materials feature a range of English accents to build comprehension skills in diverse contexts.
Speaking (GSE: 32-47)
Speaking development emphasizes clearer, more sustained, and spontaneous communication. Students practice short conversations on routines, preferences, and familiar topics, gradually expanding to describe events, give simple reasons, and participate actively in discussions. By the end of the level, learners can give short presentations, express opinions with short supporting details, and manage turn-taking in everyday interactions.
Writing (GSE: 34-48)
Writing skills move from simple sentences to coherent short paragraphs. Early tasks involve describing familiar events and linking ideas with basic connectors. As learners advance, they produce short, well-structured texts with clear beginnings and endings, describe, narrate, or compare information, and write paragraphs with justifications. Emphasis is placed on clarity, organization, and appropriate use of vocabulary and grammar.
Grammar (GSE: 27-52)
Grammar instruction at Pre-Intermediate consolidates Elementary-level knowledge while introducing more complex structures. Students use high-frequency tenses (present simple, present continuous, past simple), modals, comparative forms, and countable/uncountable nouns. Later topics include conditionals, time expressions, and more complex sentence forms to enhance accuracy, coherence, and range in both spoken and written communication.
Vocabulary (GSE: 30-43)
At the Pre-Intermediate level, learners expand their vocabulary to cover a wider range of everyday and academic topics. Students are introduced to less frequent words, common collocations, and topic-based vocabulary, enabling them to express ideas more precisely. They also develop skills in understanding meaning from context and recognizing relationships between words, such as synonyms and antonyms. Vocabulary is practiced through reading and listening texts, allowing learners to use new items in both familiar and slightly more complex communicative situations.
Intermediate Level (CEFR: B1/B1+) (GSE: 43-59)
Overall Description
The Intermediate level course supports learners as they progress from basic English toward more confident, independent use of the language across academic, social, and workplace contexts. Students consolidate foundational skills while expanding their ability to understand, analyze, and produce longer and more complex texts. By the end of this level, learners can express ideas, compare and evaluate information, and communicate effectively in both spoken and written English. Clearly defined GSE-aligned objectives guide the curriculum and provide structured practice through coursebooks, supplementary exercises, writing tasks, and online activities.
Reading (GSE: 40-55)
Students engage with longer and more abstract texts, including narratives, descriptions, and factual information. Early objectives involve understanding main ideas and extracting specific facts. As proficiency develops, learners can identify the writer’s purpose, recognize cohesive devices, interpret tone, and make inferences. By the upper range, they approach texts with greater autonomy, confidently understanding relationships between ideas and the author’s perspective.
Listening (GSE: 43-57)
Listening activities feature naturally paced speech, conversations, short talks, and presentations. Early on, learners identify key facts and follow main ideas in familiar contexts. Mid-level objectives include taking guided notes, understanding implied meanings, recognizing viewpoints, and comprehending varied accents. At the higher end, students can follow longer exchanges, detect tone or attitude, and make inferences about speaker intentions even when information is not explicit.
Speaking (GSE: 41-57)
Speaking development emphasizes fluency, clarity, and interactive communication. Students begin by describing experiences, expressing opinions, and managing routine interactions. As they progress, they organize longer responses, explain ideas, compare alternatives, and engage in extended discussions. By the end of the level, learners can present structured arguments, respond spontaneously, and communicate flexibly and confidently.
Writing (GSE: 47-59)
Writing tasks progress from coherent paragraphs to structured essays. Students learn to organize ideas with introductions, conclusions, and supporting examples. Objectives include producing well-structured essays and clearly expressing viewpoints appropriate for academic and formal contexts, demonstrating coherence, clarity, and grammatical accuracy.
Grammar (GSE: 26-63)
Grammar instruction focuses on accuracy and flexibility. Students strengthen their command of present and past tenses, comparative forms, and sentence variation. Mid-level topics include relative clauses, mixed tenses, modals for speculation, and adverbial phrases. At the upper range, learners manage complex sentence structures with increased accuracy and fluency, applying grammatical control in both speech and writing.
Vocabulary (GSE: 43-59)
Vocabulary instruction at the Intermediate level focuses on increasing both range and depth of lexical knowledge. Students learn to use a broader selection of topic-specific vocabulary, collocations, and multi-word expressions across academic, social, and professional contexts. Emphasis is placed on selecting appropriate words for different situations, as well as understanding nuances in meaning. Learners also develop strategies for inferring meaning from context and using vocabulary more flexibly in extended speaking and writing tasks.
Upper-Intermediate Level (CEFR: B1+/B2) (GSE: 51-67)
Overall Description
The Upper-Intermediate level course supports learners in using English with increasing confidence, flexibility, and independence across academic, professional, and social contexts. Students strengthen their communicative competence, expand control over complex language structures, and develop the ability to interpret, evaluate, and produce sophisticated content. By the end of this level, learners can express ideas clearly and precisely, manage multi-step reasoning, and handle abstract topics across all four language skills. GSE-aligned objectives guide instruction and provide structured practice through coursebooks, supplementary exercises, writing tasks, and online activities.
Reading (GSE: 55-70)
Students work with extended and sophisticated texts, including academic, semi-formal, and discursive materials. Early objectives involve interpreting main ideas and scanning for key points. Mid-level tasks include inferring writer's purpose, viewpoint, and bias, and recognizing implicit arguments. At the higher range, learners compare perspectives, evaluate claims, and analyze nuanced meaning, engaging critically with complex content.
Listening (GSE: 48-70)
Listening activities feature extended talks, presentations, and conversations with layered information. Students begin by identifying tone, viewpoint, and key details. As proficiency develops, they track detailed academic talks, understand nuanced shifts in argument, and interpret implications. At the upper end, learners handle technical content, detect irony or implied criticism, and respond critically to what they hear.
Speaking (GSE: 55-66)
Speaking development emphasizes fluency, nuance, and control. Students manage extended discussions, organize ideas logically, and express viewpoints with supporting reasons. Mid-level objectives involve spontaneous expression, hedging, and expressing uncertainty or speculation. At the top range, learners handle complex conversational turns, shift between abstract and concrete topics, and maintain fluency with natural repair strategies and discourse markers.
Writing (GSE: 54-66)
Writing skills advance to producing extended, cohesive, and audience-appropriate texts. Early tasks include multi-paragraph compositions like different essay types. Mid-range objectives focus on logical flow, cohesion, and complex grammar usage. At the higher range, students evaluate perspectives, construct structured arguments, and adapt tone and style for different audiences.
Grammar (GSE: 48-67)
Grammar instruction emphasizes range, flexibility, and accuracy. Students refine complex tenses, modals, and relative clauses, then progress to inversion, cleft sentences, mixed conditionals, and advanced passive forms. Upper-level objectives include discourse grammar, abstract structures (e.g., reported questions, speculative forms), and stylistic variation to enhance clarity and impact in both spoken and written communication.
Vocabulary (GSE: 51-67)
At the Upper-Intermediate level, vocabulary development emphasizes precision, flexibility, and sophistication. Students work with a wide range of academic and professional vocabulary, including idiomatic expressions, phrasal verbs, and discipline-specific terminology. They learn to distinguish subtle differences in meaning, tone, and register, and to use vocabulary effectively in complex and abstract contexts. Instruction also focuses on expanding lexical awareness through collocations, word formation, and contextual usage, enabling learners to communicate with clarity and nuance across all skills.
Upper-Success Level
It is a level designed for students who have completed the Upper-Intermediate level but were unsuccessful in the Proficiency Exam. At this level, students can synthesize information from various sources, conduct critical analyses, and communicate effectively in academic contexts. Academic writing emphasizes coherence and the development of arguments. Reading and listening skills involve advanced inference, evaluation of perspectives, and detailed analysis, while speaking skills require students to participate in academic discussions and deliver effective presentations. This level demonstrates that students have acquired the linguistic and academic competencies necessary to transition successfully into faculty-level courses.
Except for Upper Success students, all students are required to successfully complete the Upper or Upper Extended level in order to be eligible to take the EPE.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES, AIMS, AND LEARNING OUTCOMES
The learning outcomes of the English Language School (ELS) are determined in alignment with the Global Scale of English (GSE). GSE is an internationally recognized scale developed to measure learners’ language development and provides descriptors indicating what learners can do in speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary across a scale ranging from 10 to 90 (Pearson, 2019).
GSE offers different versions for academic, adult, professional, and young learners. The outcomes used in the ELS program are based on the framework developed for adult and academic learners and have been adapted to meet the specific needs of the institution’s student profile.
GSE provides a clear and systematic roadmap for all stakeholders. Students can monitor their own progress through GSE-based self-assessment tools. Teachers are provided with clear guidance on what to teach, how to teach it, and how much time to allocate to each learning outcome. Similarly, assessment units are equipped with structured guidelines on how to evaluate each skill. In this way, GSE contributes to the consistent and coherent structuring of all components of the program.
Within the ELS program, learning outcomes progress from approximately GSE 10 at the entry level to GSE 70 at the exit level.
The ELS aims to prepare students effectively for their academic studies at the university. To achieve this, the program is continuously reviewed and updated based on feedback received from students and academic departments. Analyses have revealed that there is a particular need to further develop productive skills, especially writing and speaking.
In response to these needs, the GSE ecosystem has been adopted as the foundational framework for the revised curriculum. This decision was made following a careful evaluation of the detailed and measurable learning outcomes provided by GSE.
The granular structure of GSE enables students to track their progress step by step, thereby increasing motivation throughout the learning process. With this approach, both students and teachers can clearly identify the learner’s current level, progress, and the learning objectives to focus on next.
Within this framework, the following elements are considered essential for an effective learning ecosystem:
- Clear definitions of what it means to be at each level
- Teaching and learning materials aligned with level objectives
- Comprehensive assessment tools designed to measure proficiency across the four core language skills
Thanks to the structure provided by GSE, the ELS can design courses and materials tailored to students’ needs and systematically determine grammar targets and skill-based level progression.