A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or
more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two
months apart.
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons
are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have
to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until
the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each
lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such,
we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final
exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work,
including the final exam.
Week One
Wednesday - Lesson 01
You will practice using can to talk about ordering food in a restaurant. You’ll also study how to use how much and how many with count and noncount nouns. Skills you’ll learn in this lesson include reading a menu, making a shopping list, locating items in a supermarket, planning meals, and reading recipes.
Friday - Lesson 02
You will practice using information questions about housing and learn to use prepositions of location to describe where furniture goes in a room. Skills in this lesson include describing housing, interpreting classified ads, completing a rental application, identifying rooms and furniture, and making a family budget.
Week Two
Wednesday - Lesson 03
You will learn the form for information questions and practice using it. You’ll use the imperative for directions and the simple present and the present continuous tenses. Skills in this lesson include describing your community, scanning a directory index, giving and following directions, reading a letter, and writing and sending a letter.
Friday - Lesson 04
You will practice should and need to give advice and warnings about health. You’ll make comparisons about what is better and best and use regular and irregular verbs in simple past to describe symptoms and medical problems. Skills in this lesson include describing healthy practices, identifying ailments, making a doctor’s appointment, reading medicine labels, and identifying and describing emergencies.
Week Three
Wednesday - Lesson 05
You will practice using will to make commitments and can to talk about your abilities and experience. You’ll review the imperative. You’ll also practice regular and irregular verbs in simple past. Skills in this lesson include evaluating learning and work skills, identifying jobs and job skills, applying for a job, interviewing for a job, and following instructions in an office.
Friday - Lesson 06
This lesson reviews the material covered in Lessons 1–5. It covers these topics: food and nutrition, housing, the community, health, and work situations. The grammar points introduced and practiced in Lessons 1–5 are also covered.
Week Four
Wednesday - Lesson 07
You’ll identify common goals and practice expressing future plans with want to, hope to, plan to, and be going to. You’ll use clauses with because and so to talk about reasons and results. You’ll also practice writing your goals in sentences and in a paragraph. Skills in this lesson include identifying goals, setting academic goals, setting work goals, finding ways to learn, and recording goals.
Friday - Lesson 08
In this lesson, you will practice using adverbs of frequency and future time clauses with when. Skills in this lesson include making a schedule; identifying goals, obstacles, and solutions; writing about your goals; identifying study habits; and identifying time-management strategies.
Week Five
Wednesday - Lesson 09
You will practice using get + object + past participle to describe services you receive. You’ll review comparative and superlative adjectives and use must and have to describe necessary things. Skills in this lesson include identifying places to purchase goods and services, interpreting advertisements, comparing products, identifying and comparing purchasing methods, and making a smart purchase.
Friday - Lesson 10
You will practice comparatives using more, most, fewer, less, and least as well as yes/no questions with do. You will also review information questions and study an introduction to past continuous tense form. Skills in this lesson include interpreting classified ads, making decisions about housing, arranging and canceling utilities, making a budget, and writing a letter to a landlord.
Week Six
Wednesday - Lesson 11
Lesson 11 focuses on information questions with how far, what time, how often, and how much. There is also a section on adverbial clauses with before, after, and when. Skills in this lesson include asking for information, interpreting charts and comparing information, interpreting a road map, identifying daily activities, and writing about a place.
Friday - Lesson 12
This lesson reviews the material covered in Lessons 7–11. It covers these topics: goals and lifelong learning, balancing your life, becoming a smart consumer, housing, and community life. The grammar points introduced and practiced in Lessons 7–11 are also covered.