English Language Learning

• Write online every day for one week, in response to high-quality popular articles.
• Get feedback from ELL Writing Instructors on your ideas, style, vocabulary and grammar.
• Learn useful strategies for reading, summarizing and more.
• Become more familiar with writing styles in online media.

What will I read for the Popular Reading eWriting Intensive?
We will send you an interesting, high-quality popular article each day of the intensive.  

What will I write for Popular Reading eWriting?
Each day, you will write about 300 words in response to prompts based on the article for that day’s reading. The prompts are designed to help you practice the following:

• Identifying an author’s main points
• Expanding vocabulary and background knowledge
• Evaluating an author’s argument
• Using critical thinking to develop your ideas
• Writing clearly and concisely

How much time should I spend on Popular Reading eWriting?

• Read for 45 minutes (minimum)
• Write for 45 minutes (minimum)
• Write a total of about 300 words

How should I format my emails to my instructor?

• Use your U of T email
• See the introductory email from your instructor to find out whether attachments are okay or not
• Label your subject line with the # of the writing, for example, Reading eWriting #1
• Greet your instructor (Hello, Instructor). End with your name (Thanks, Your Student)
• In your first email, introduce yourself and tell your instructor what you want to work on
• In your first email, also give your instructor your UTOR ID for the CCR validation

CCR validation: Students must complete all five writings.

Join us to practice and learn how to:

• Get over anxiety and enjoy public speaking
• Speak with appropriate, dynamic expression
• Use Design Thinking to target a presentation to its audience
• Structure a speech into a unified whole
• Design effective visual aids

This course will take place in person or synchronously on Zoom for two hours per week, for four weeks (section 1 takes place in-person, while Section 2 takes place synchronously on Zoom). For both sections of the course, students will also put in about 1.5 hours of online work between scheduled classes. The course is free and non-credit. It will not affect your GPA. 

During each meeting of this course, short instructor-led lessons will introduce students to principles and practices that they will then immediately apply in structured, small-group activities.

One of the first goals of our work together will be to build an atmosphere that is friendly and encouraging. The overall course objective is to boost your confidence in speaking. You do not need to speak English extremely well to take this course. 

CCR validation: Attendance and full participation at three of four class sessions.

The Communication Café Intensive will be held in-person at the Owlery Café at University College, with additional sessions held synchronously on Zoom. The Intensive is open to all Faculty of Arts & Science undergraduate students. You may register for only one Café, or for as many of the Cafés as you wish. There is no fee.

CCR validation: Students must attend a minimum of six Cafés. You may earn the CCR validation by attending six Cafés in the Fall term, six Cafés in the Winter term, or a combination of Cafés during both Fall and Winter Reading Weeks in one academic year (for a total of six).

This course is entirely online and asynchronous (you do not have to log in at a particular time). Total time commitment: 6 hours (2 hours per week). There is no Quercus site. Students will receive materials and MyMedia links via email. 

This mini course consists of several “mini talks” on professional writing as well as 3 real-world writing tasks (a personal statement or informal writing to help generate a personal statement; a networking email or job application letter; and an evidence-based resume, designed to help students identify university experiences as relevant professional skills). Participants will get detailed feedback on their writing from ELL Writing Instructors.

The course will begin with an examination of how culture impacts the way we present ourselves in writing. Students will be encouraged to consider the approaches they may bring to professional writing from the various languages and cultures that form their identity, and to think through how they can best present themselves. 

We will also discuss issues of honesty in professional writing and will look at how to be authentic while maintaining a positive image. We’ll look at how to make the most of the experience you have — even if it isn’t a lot — and how to translate university experiences into evidence of workplace skills.

Our ELL Writing Instructors will give you feedback on your content, formatting, organization, word choice, level of detail, and grammar/sentence structure, as well as on the overall persuasiveness of your approach. You will also reflect on your learning.

This course is free and non-credit. It is open only to undergraduates in the Faculty of Arts & Science, St. George campus.

CCR validation: Students must complete all writing assignments. 

No. ELL has no connection to your academic record. ELL is co-curricular. You are entitled to a Co-Curricular Record (CCR) validation upon completing our courses, but the validation is not mandatory. Most students do want the validation, but if you prefer that ELL not appear on your CCR, let us know.

Yes. However, please let us know if your plans have changed and you will not attend or if you need to withdraw. We often have long waitlists.

No. Here are links to similar offerings in other faculties and on the other campuses:

• School of Graduate Studies — Graduate Centre for Academic Communication
• University of Toronto Scarborough 
• University of Toronto Mississauga
• Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Maybe. If you feel you’d benefit from practice and feedback in scholarly reading, academic writing and academic speaking/presentation, you will likely find some of our programming useful. Feel free to register, participate in a session and see if we are a good match for you. If not, you don’t need to stay. 

Don’t worry. You probably won’t feel embarrassed in ELL activities. We have a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. There are no grades, and there’s no competition. Our activities are designed for students working at different levels.

Yes. ELL is designed and taught by language professors and writing centre instructors. We can help you keep moving ahead.

Yes. We try either to use materials that will be helpful for students in any discipline and/or to vary materials for students in these three major areas. Our Scholarly Reading eWriting program can also be customized to your courses, in that you may base the writing practice on readings from your own program.

Leora Freedman is the coordinator of the ELL program and Associate Professor in the Teaching Stream. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction writing from the University of Arizona and has taught many college and university courses in English as a foreign language, English literature and rhetoric and professional/ technical communication. She is currently a member of an international research group studying the role of reading in students’ experience of higher education. Her chapter based on teaching at U of T recently appeared in What is College Reading? (Horning, Gollnitz, & Haller, eds). Leora is a novelist and short-story writer; her most recent novel was a finalist for the 10th Annual National Indie Excellence Award in the US.

Daveeda Goldberg is the developer of the ELL program's oral presentation courses, through which she has helped hundreds of students gain the confidence to speak up in their classes, tutorials and labs. She is also the digital developer of Teaching in Our Multilingual Environment, an online project supporting teaching assistants and faculty across the Faculty of Arts & Science. In addition to her position as ELL Specialist, Daveeda works as a Writing Instructor at the New College Writing Centre, volunteers as a tutor for under-served high school students and, in her ongoing doctoral work, researches and writes about the cultural production of ethics and affect in late modern Europe. Daveeda holds an MA in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College and a Master of Arts in Anthropology from Brandeis University.