Welcome Spring-2 Students!

Welcome back! We hope that all of you are having a great first week of classes. If the first day is any indicator, this is going to be a wonderful term. We have many exciting activities lined up for you all this term: Game Nights, Movie Days, English Tables, and a Paintball Trip!

To better help you plan for our events, here is a printable calendar:.SPRING-2 CALENDAR.

Also, the sign-up sheet for the Paintball Trip will be in the ESL Office. Please sign-up before April 9! There are limited spots available, so make sure that you come as soon as possible to reserve your place.

From all of us here at AUM’s ESL Office, we look forward to another great term! 

Spring-1 End of Term Luncheon

Make plans to attend the end of term luncheon this Thursday, March 14, from 11:45am – 1pm in Room#2. Lots of fun games, prizes, awards, and good food are just a few of the reasons you don’t want to miss this special activity. Make sure and let your listening & speaking instructor or the ESL office know if you plan to attend.

Daylight Savings – Time Change

It’s that time of year again, time to spring forward! Every spring and fall the clocks are changed in the United States in almost all states. As an international student, this may be something new to you if you do not have daylight savings time in your country (check out the map at the bottom of this post to see which countries participate in daylight savings time -DST). So, we enjoy our sleep while we can, and we look forward to more sunshine in the days ahead. Spring is right around the corner!

Here’s what you need to know…

The clocks will be springing ahead one hour this weekend. Clocks are scheduled to change on Sunday, March 10, 2013, from 2:00 AM to 3:00 AM.  You can change your clock before you go to sleep on Saturday or when you wake up on Sunday morning. Just remember to change it, or you’ll be late for class on Monday morning!

More information about Daylight Savings Time can be found here.

image courtesy of Wikipedia

Spring-2 2013 Registration

Kylie shares important Spring-2 2013 registration information.

Why are level exams important in the ESL Program?

Gokhan, ESL Program Manager

I cannot believe that it has been five weeks since classes started. I would like to take this opportunity to mention a few facts about our program

We want each and every one of you to succeed in your academic, professional, and personal goals by receiving high-quality English language training. One way, we are trying to ensure this is implementing level exams. Level exams help us better determine your proficiency level. The contents of the level exams are different from final exams. Final exams have questions about what you have studied this term in the class. Level exams include a variety of questions that are at the level you are in. For example, you did not study Present Perfect Tense in the class, so you will not see any questions about it on the final exam. However, you may see a question about Present Perfect Tense on your level exam because that topic is covered at that level, and you need to know how to use that tense before you can move up to the next level.  As you know, we consider your class average (your grade) and the result of your level exam to decide if you can move up to a next level. Therefore, it is very important that you take the level exams on Thursday, March 14.

We will offer around 20 ESL courses in April, most of which start on April 1. The registration deadline is March 26, 2013. If you are interested in improving your English, I encourage you to take advantage of early registration discounts, which will expire on March 26. If you have any questions about the ESL programs at AUM, please contact Kylie Phillips, our Program Associate at (334) 244-3131 or esl@aum.edu

We look forward to seeing you in the program this spring!

Get to Know our Teachers

Kody, ESL Instructor

Meet Kody

Kody Salzburn is a certified TESOL teacher and has been teaching in the English as a Second Language Program at Auburn University Montgomery since January 2011. He graduated with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts from AUM, where he is currently an MBA student.  Kody has a passion for interacting with people from different cultures and teaching English as a Second Language. He enjoys teaching IEP classes as well as a TOEFL test prep class. When he is not teaching, Kody enjoys photography, music, and traveling. He loves traveling in Europe and hopes to teach English abroad in the future.

Spring-1 2013 New Student Orientation

Orientation for all New F-1 students will be Wednesday, January 23. All new F-1 students should come to room #2 after Grammar/Writing class. If you have any questions, please contact Kylie in the ESL office at 334-244-3131

Placement Test

The placement test for winter courses will be tomorrow from 9:30am – 11:30am in classroom 1 on the 7th floor of the Library Tower.

New Year Greetings

Happy New Year! I would like to extend a warm welcome to all our new and returning students. We are very excited about the ESL Programs we are offering in January. We strive to offer you high-quality English language training to help you succeed in your academic, professional, and personal lives.

The Intensive English Program and the Communicative English Program offer day-time and evening classes for young adults and adults. The Intensive English Program focuses on academic English while the Communicative English program focuses on general English. Depending on your needs and your proficiency level, you can choose one or more of the 17 classes we offer this winter.

I encourage you to take advantage of early registration discounts, which expire on January 11.

Kylie Phillips, Program Associate

If you have any questions about our programs, need further information, or wish to register for courses, please contact Kylie Phillips, our new program associate, at (334) 244-3131 or esl@aum.edu.

We look forward to seeing you in our program this winter!

Gokhan Alkanat,
Senior Program Manager

Merry Christmas