International Students (WAC)

International students at Confederation College may be required to read, write, listen and speak as part of their learning. Ontario employers of college graduates expect graduates to be able to use language for a variety of purposes at work to communicate with customers, coworkers and supervisors.

Here are some key points about writing and learning that will help you in your studies:

Learning and Using New Vocabulary

In College you are expected to use the vocabulary you learn both in your written and spoken assignments, and also during the practical parts of the program (labs, scenarios, clinical, etc.):

learn and use new vocabulary in your writing and speaking;
use a variety of techniques to learn new vocabulary such as
- keep a list of new terms and definitions you have learned in class or from the textbook
- keep a list of commonly used phrases from your area of study (i.e. business, health, technology language)
- practice using the terms; create flashcards to review them away from class
- learn how to pronounce the word and its various forms
- use new terms and definitions appropriately in your written assignments, as well as in hands-on assignments
you may use a translator (electronic) or bilingual website to translate terms from English to your first language while you are studying but this may not be possible during class activities, tests, and in practical situations
avoid writing an assignment in your language and then translating the entire assignment into English; this often results in writing that is incomprehensible
practice reading English outside of your college studies: online newspapers, magazines, books and closed captioned videos and movies

Listening and Speaking

practice listening to podcasts and newscasts about your area of study; choose ones that have English closed Captioning or scripts so that you can listen and read at the same time
Practice speaking English as much as you can in class and outside of class

Useful Links

Online Grammar/Spell checkers:

grammarly.com

Google Translate:

translate.google.com

Rules for writing numbers: englishgrammar.org/rules-writing-numbers/

Expressing Numbers in English: esl.about.com/od/beginningvocabulary/a/ex_numbers.htm

Punctuation: englishgrammar.org/category/punctuation/

Improve your Pronunciation: 5minuteenglish.com/the-fun-of-learning-english.htm

Doing research online: Confederation College Library

How to Write an Essay: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/1/

Writing in North American Colleges: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/683/01/