Spring 2015 UIUC ESL Grammar Workshop Series

All international students at UIUC are now invited to attend Spring 2015 UIUC ESL Grammar Workshop Series hosted by students in EIL 422 English Grammar for ESL Teachers and UIUC ESL Services Program.
  1. Cost: ALL sessions are FREE for all international students at UIUC
  2. Location: All sessions (except for Tense and Aspect Session 2 and Preposition Session 2) will be held at Foreign Languages Building, G17 (a computer lab in the basement) 
  3. Topics: The following topics are the most difficult areas for ESL students and thus will be covered in the workshop series (click each link below to find out more information about each workshop): 
  4. Dates and Sign-up: Please sign up for the topic(s) you're interested in learning by clicking the registration link(s) below. There are only 15 seats per session, so hurry up (see the sign-up deadlines below)! You will need to log in with your NetID and password. The two sessions on the same topic may contain the same contents, so do NOT sign up for two sessions on the same topic
    • Sentence structure (Sign-up deadline: March 9)
    • Tense and aspect (Sign-up deadline: March 30)
    • Articles (Sign-up deadline: April 8)
    • Prepositions and phrasal verbs (Sign-up deadline: April 14)
    6. Method/Procedure: Each session will be two hours. The first hour of each session will be a lecture/whole-class discussion and the second hour will be a hands-on practice in smaller groups. There will be three instructors for each session, so you will have opportunities to ask for one-on-one help during small group activities.
    7. Contact Information: Please contact Anita Greenfield, UIUC ESL Writing Program Research Assistant, at eslwriting@mx.uillinois.edu for more questions on registration or contact Jin Kim, UIUC ESL Writing Program Curriculum Coordinator, at jinkim7@illinois.edu if you are interested in advertising this opportunity as an instructor or a private tutor working for international students at UIUC.

    Verb Usage

    Purpose/Tentative Topics: This workshop is for you if you have trouble with...
    • Recognizing and using transitive, intransitive, and ditransitive verbs
    • Using an appropriate verb phrase structure by recognizing that different kinds of verbs are followed by different kinds of phrases (e.g. noun phrases, but also infinitives, gerunds, prepositional phrases, or clauses)
    Note: The list above is "tentative" and is subject to change based on the needs analysis of the students who sign up. Don't worry if you don't understand all the grammatical terms above. You do not need to know all the terms to be able to follow the workshop because they will explained during the workshop. Please also note that the focus of the workshop is to help you get better at "using" English grammar rather than acquiring the knowledge of English grammar.

    Sign-up: Sign-up links for all sessions are available here.

    Method/Procedure: Each session will be two hours. The first hour of each session will be a lecture/discussion and the second hour will be a hands-on practice in smaller groups. There will be three instructors for each session, so you will have opportunities to ask for one-on-one help during small group activities.

    Supplementary Materials: Any materials provided during the workshop that you may use for further study will be uploaded here after each session.