English Unit

Welcome to the English Department website !

The English Department is located on the fifth floor of the AGU. This website provides information about the programs and facilities the department offers and other departmental information.

Mission statement:

To help the students and staff of the AGU to improve their language skills for academic and professional purposes.

Facilities:

Please click on any of the following:

• Course Offerings
• Self Access Centre
• Language Clinic Staff
• Newsletter
• Newsletter Archive
  

Course offerings:

The English Language Unit provides courses for students in the medical college, in the premedical year of their program. Two five credit English courses are compulsory for all pre-medical students, one given in each semester. These courses focus primarily on developing and enhancing students' abilities to communicate effectively in the English they will encounter in their future medical studies. Additional language workshops are provided for students with deficiencies in specific language areas.

English courses are also provided as required, to students in post-graduate programs in Education, Technology Management, Arid Science and Biotechnology. These courses are mostly intended to develop students' ability to read and understand English language academic journals and texts in their area of specialization.

Self Access Centre:

The self-access centre (SAC), located on the 5th floor, is a facility opened in 1998 to encourage students to continue to practice their English skills outside of the classroom. Each student works on an individualized program according to his or her needs.

For this purpose, the centre has been equipped with a variety of audio visual and other aids including videos and CD ROMs, books, language exercises, listening equipment, games, flash cards etc., allowing the student to learn by using different media.

Pre-medical students are required to make use of this facility every semester for a designated number of hours. Additionally, students are referred by the instructors to the SAC, for the correction of language weaknesses in specific areas.

There is also a drop-in service for any AGU student or staff member to use the facilities of the SAC for improving their English skills.

A trained supervisor oversees the SAC and helps students select materials and direct their own learning.

Language clinic:

Academic Faculty and Staff (2006 - 2007)