The course aims at increasing the students’ knowledge of the target language and its structures. Students are trained to use this knowledge to study the grammar of the simple sentence and its components such as tenses, nouns, verbs, modals, adjectives, prepositions, and verbs. Students are also trained to recognize the components of the complex sentence and their position in the sentence.

The course offers exposure to basic writing and research skills useful for research papers and dissertations. In particular, it offers students the opportunity to learn about academic writing skills such as controlling the mechanics and connective tissue of writing, quoting and referencing skills, various cognitive skills (comparing, contrasting, and summarizing), thinking errors, etc. The second part of the course introduces students to some research skills useful for starting MA and Ph.D. dissertations.

The course tackles the theory and practice of language planning and language policy.