Our Classes
Embry-Riddle Language Institute's intensive English program prepares students for academic study in a university environment. However, the program is also well-suited to people who wish simply to raise their overall proficiency in English.
The ERLI program offers core skills and special topics courses. ERLI has four levels of instruction from high-beginning through advanced and it is possible for students to split levels.
Entering Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University: Students can earn ERLI recommendation for academic study in two ways:
1) Students can complete the highest level of ERLI classes successfully.
2) Students can obtain the minimum TOEFL iBT, IELTS, or Duolingo scores required and complete their current ERLI semester successfully.
Courses Offered
Students who are on a student visa must be enrolled full-time. Full-time at ERLI includes five classes.
You can download a sample schedule of our classes and when they meet.
Listening & Speaking
Profile
Level 2
ELS 002: High-Beginning Listening/Speaking
Course Description: The High-Beginning Listening and Speaking course is designed to introduce students to English conversation patterns, informal speeches, role-playing, vocabulary development, group discussions and rules of pronunciation, as well as note-taking and listening comprehension strategies. Students use short-hand techniques, such as some abbreviations, symbols and acronyms, at a high-beginning-level. Students organize notes from a high-beginner-level lecture by identifying and writing down main ideas and supporting details, and employing the use of some key words. Students improve their oral ability through work on high-beginning-level pronunciation and fluency skills, discussions and short formal, structured presentations. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Level 3
ELS 003: Intermediate Listening/Speaking
Course Descriptions: The Intermediate Listening and Speaking course is designed to develop note-taking techniques along with summarizing and discussion strategies. This course helps students to develop listening skills based on intermediate-level materials as well as lectures and to recognize lecture organization and signals for important information. Students improve their oral ability through work on intermediate-level pronunciation and fluency skills, discussions, and formal, structured presentations. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Level 4
ELS 004: High-Intermediate Listening/Speaking
Course Description: This High-Intermediate Listening and Speaking course is designed to reinforce and expand on note-taking, outlining, summarizing and discussion strategies, as well as expressing critical opinions. This course re-enforces listening skills with academic-based high-intermediate level materials as well as academic lectures to recognize lecture organization and signals for important information. Students improve their oral ability through work on high-intermediate-level pronunciation and fluency skills, discussions and formal, structured presentations. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Level 5
ELS 005: Advanced Listening/Speaking
Course Description: This Advanced Listening and Speaking course is designed to develop critical thinking through academic topics, with a focus on listening comprehension and speaking skills essential for success at American universities. This course refines note-taking, outlining, summarizing and discussion strategies, as well as practices critical thinking based on advanced-level academic materials. Students recognize lecture organization and signals to identify important information, and also improve their oral ability through work on advanced-level pronunciation and fluency skills, discussions and formal, structured presentations. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Writing
Profile
Level 2
EWR 002: High-Beginning Writing
Course Description: The High-Beginning Writing course is designed to introduce students to the mechanics of paragraph/essay writing. Students write about familiar topics focusing on pre-writing strategies, such as brainstorming and outlining, as well as post-writing editing. Students are guided through the writing process to produce coherent, well-organized and adequately developed paragraphs, which include a topic sentence, relevant supporting details and concluding sentence along with appropriate transitions, with a goal of leading up to writing at least one essay. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Level 3
EWR 003: Intermediate Writing
Course Description: The Intermediate Writing course is designed to develop the writing skills that students acquired in the High-Beginning Writing course. The goal of the course is to help students learn how to write an organized, coherent essay in a variety of formats, such as persuasive, cause and effect, and comparison/contrast. As such, students will learn to write well-supported, multi-paragraph essays that include an introduction with a thesis, a body and conclusion along with appropriate transitions. Focus in this course is on the process of writing including pre-and post-writing strategies, such as brainstorming and outlining, as well as editing. This course also teaches students to paraphrase and summarize non-authentic texts at an intermediate-level. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Level 4
EWR 004: High-Intermediate Writing
Course Description: The High-Intermediate Writing course is designed to reinforce and expand the writing skills that students acquired in the Intermediate Writing course and to set the foundation for research writing. The goal of the course is to help students to write an organized, fully-developed, coherent essay in a variety of formats, such as persuasive, cause and effect, compare/contrast and argumentative by incorporating support paraphrased from authentic and non-authentic high-intermediate-level texts, with a focus on the writing process and developing research and summarizing skills. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, we are on a different schedule. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Level 5
EWR 005: Advanced Writing
Course Description: The Advanced Writing course is designed to develop critical reading, thinking and writing skills through topics requiring research while also addressing the specific language needs of non-native speakers. Writing assignments include argumentative, cause and effect, comparison/contrast and expository essays based on analysis and paraphrasing of various assigned authentic and non-authentic advanced-level sources leading up to the completion of a five-page research paper. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Special Topics
Profile
ELB 2 – American Topics
In American Topics, students study all aspects of American culture and history, including but not limited to: geography, government, technology, cultural traditions, history, climate and sports. The students’ study is informed by both materials found in textbooks and supplemental resources created by the instructor, which are modified to meet their needs as English language learners. Additionally, students in American Topics are encouraged to bring in their own topics for study, including articles and videos discussing current events and political issues. The syllabus is tailored to meet the current class' interests, with the goal of giving students a comprehensive overview of life in the United States. This class meets four times a week for 50 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Reading
Profile
Level 2
ERD 002: High-Beginning Reading
Course Description: The High-Beginning Reading course is designed to build upon students’ basic reading skills in English with the goal of being able to understand and utilize non-authentic passage-length material at a high-beginning level leading up to reading at an eight to ten paragraph passage level, with Lexile range of 180L to 910L. As such, students will learn vocabulary recognition and application strategies, such as context clues, roots, prefixes and suffixes, limited critical thinking skills, such as making inferences and predictions about specific content they will read in high-beginning-level passages, and how to identify the stated main idea and supporting details. During the fall and spring semesters, class meets twice a week for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. During summer, class meets twice a week for 60 minutes and twice a week for 75 minutes.
Level 3
ERD 003: Intermediate Reading
Course Description: The Intermediate Reading course is designed to further develop students’ reading skills in English beyond the high-beginner level with the goal of being able to understand and utilize non-authentic passage-length material at an intermediate level leading up to reading at a multi-page passage with Lexile levels ranging between 705L and 1210L. As such, students will learn vocabulary recognition strategies and apply them to terms found in intermediate-level fiction and non-fiction material in a variety of styles/formats. They will also learn critical thinking skills, how to identify the stated and implied main idea and supporting details of paragraphs and longer texts, and how to employ skimming and scanning techniques. During fall and spring semesters, this class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. During summer, the class meets twice a week for 60 minutes and twice a week for 75 minutes.
Level 4
ERD 004: High-Intermediate Reading
Course Description: The High-Intermediate Reading course is designed to reinforce and expand on the reading skills of an intermediate-level student with the goal of being able to understand and utilize authentic and non-authentic material at a high-intermediate-level with Lexile levels ranging from 1000L to 1370L. As such, students will learn vocabulary recognition strategies and apply them in comprehending high intermediate-level fiction and non-fiction material in a variety of styles/formats, such as articles, reports, essays, abridged novels and abridged short stories. They will also learn critical thinking skills including inferences, analysis and supporting an opinion, as well as how to identify the stated and implied main idea and supporting details of paragraphs and entire articles, and how to employ skimming and scanning techniques. During fall and spring semesters, this class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. During summer, the class meets twice a week for 60 minutes and twice a week for 75 minutes.
Level 5
ERD 005: Advanced Reading
Course Description: The Advanced Reading course is designed to reinforce and expand on the reading skills of a high-intermediate-level student with the goal of being able to understand and utilize authentic advanced-level material with ranging Lexile measures between 1290L to 1405L. As such, students will learn critical thinking and research skills through the use of advanced-level material in a variety of styles/formats, such as articles, reports, essays, unabridged novels and short stories. They will also learn how to recognize stated and implied main idea and make judgments in the selection of supporting details for research purposes, as well as how to employ skimming and scanning techniques, and vocabulary recognition strategies. During fall and spring semesters, this class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. During summer, the class meets twice a week for 60 minutes and twice a week for 75 minutes.
Grammar
Profile
Level 2
EGM 002: High-Beginning Grammar
Course Description: The High-Beginning Grammar course is designed to build upon basic English grammar forms and usage at the word level leading to the sentence and paragraph level. Such forms include basic grammatical parts of speech including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, simple and continuous verb tenses, imperatives, phrasal verbs, simple and continuous modals, and an application of subject-verb agreement, capitalization and punctuation rules. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Level 3
EGM 003: Intermediate Grammar
Course Description: The Intermediate Grammar course is designed to transition students from the word level to the clause level forms and usage. This includes an understanding and application of all 12 active verb tenses, gerunds and infinitives as subjects and objects, past and present modals in the simple and continuous forms, adverb clauses, real conditionals, and subject-subject/object-subject adjective clauses. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Level 4
EGM 004: Advanced Grammar
Course Description: The Advanced Grammar course is designed to reinforce and expand on the grammatical forms and usage learned in EGM 003. This includes an understanding and application of all four kinds of adjective clauses in both their active and passive reduced and fronted forms, noun clauses in their active and passive forms, adverb clauses in their active and passive reduced forms, and the five types of real and unreal conditionals in their active and passive inverted forms. This class meets four times a week, twice for 50 minutes and twice for 75 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
Special Topics - Aviation
Profile
ELB 3: Aviation & Aerospace 101
The AVAS 101 course is designed to help students practice their core language skills while learning about Aviation and Aerospace in the United States. As such, it covers a variety of topics including: aviation history, the principles of flight, primary and secondary control surfaces, and the parts of a small plane, including the engine, fuel system, electrical system and flight instrumentation. It also focuses on airports with an emphasis on the basic layout, as well as runway and taxiway signs and markings. It then touches on basic air traffic control with the pilot’s alphabet and covers some common causes of aircraft accidents. The course ends with a brief history of space travel and the principles behind rocket flight. This class meets four times a week for 50 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
ELB 4: Aviation Topics & EVFR
ELB 4 has two sections — Aviation Topics (ATOP), which covers general aviation content, and English for Visual Flight Rules (EVFR), which focuses on radio communication, weather and navigation used in VFR flight. ATOP covers general aviation content. Although content sometimes changes due to the background knowledge and/or interests of the students, the course typically covers the following topics: basic airplane components, aviation physics, aerospace engineering, majors and careers in aviation, and current events in aviation.
In EVFR, students study and practice radiotelephony for visual flight rules flight. This course is designed and intended for pre- ab initio non-native English learner flight trainees who plan to begin their flight training at Embry-Riddle. Coursework includes a review of standard vocabulary and phraseology used in VFR flight, roleplay scenarios for each phase of flight and familiarization of other essential components of flight, such as airport layouts, weather reports and basic navigation. Along with an ESL teaching expert, each class is co-taught by a Certified Flight Instructor from Embry-Riddle, and many classes include further guidance from air traffic controllers. By the end of the course, students are expected to role-play a full-flight VFR scenario, from ramp to ramp, with few errors.
This class meets four times a week for 50 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
ELB 5: Human Factors in Aviation
Human Factors in Aviation prepares students for challenges in mainstream university classes. It is designed to give students an introduction to Human Factors in Aviation as well as allows students to practice their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Students will learn about different majors in HF offered by ERAU and will have a chance to explore jobs that require a degree in HF. The topics covered in this course are History of Human Factors, Human Factors in Engineering: Crew Station Design, Aeromedical Factors in Aviation, Hofstede Cross-Cultural Dimensions, CRM and many more. Students will have an opportunity to participate in ERAU lectures on Human Factors as well as go on a tour of the Human Factors and Aerospace Physiology Labs. This class meets four times a week for 50 minutes. In summer, this class meets four times a week, twice for 60 minutes and twice for 75 minutes.
*Students entering in ERLI should have high-beginning language skills to place in level 2. Please email erli@erau.edu for options.