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STUDENTS

Welcome students! As a student at the Gulf Language School, you will have full access to the University and all its facilities — from studying in the library to taking meals in the dining commons. Find campus resources for ESL and international students, as well as for all students who use English as a second language. Here are the essential resources for student success, conveniently gathered in one place.

GLS STUDENT HANDBOOK

Attendance

Rationale: Students at Gulf Language School are expected to attend all their classes. Regular attendance is important for achievement and progress. Students who are often absent miss learning opportunities and active practice of English skills. They have more difficulty completing their assignments, being prepared for classes, understanding the materials taught, and improving their overall proficiency which is needed for advancement to a higher level of study.

The Gulf Language School wants all students to reach their goals. The best way to learn English is to come to class regularly and to do your homework.

Note: If you miss one day of classes, you will miss four hours of instruction in the Intensive English Program or nine hours of instruction in the General English Program.

GLS expects students to attend ALL classes. There are NO EXCUSED ABSENCES.

If you need to be absent, be sure to tell your instructor in advance, if possible, and make up all missed work. You will still be counted absent. Instructors expect students who are absent to contact a classmate to find out the assignments they missed. Ask your instructor how to make up missed class work.

  • Attendance reported from Week 1 to Week 8 or Week 1 to Week 16 – Your absences will be reported beginning Monday or alternate day if Monday is a holiday of the first week of classes and continue through the last day of the last week of classes.
  • Late to class absences – You may be marked absent for one hour if you come to class late for 1-5 minutes. Ask your instructors about their policies for being late.
  • Not prepared for class absences – You may be marked absent and asked to leave the class if you do not bring your books or homework to class. You can be put on probation and/or dropped from the GLS if you disturb the class or if you do things that are not acceptable in a classroom setting.
  • Using your mobile phone in the class – You may be marked absent and asked to leave the class.
  • Absent for ten consecutive days with no explanation – You will be automatically dropped from the GLS. You may lose your status with DHS
  • 10 hours of absence in 8-week course – You will receive a courtesy notification of your number of absences. You may be referred to the Director to discuss your absences.
  • 20 hours of absence in 16-week course – You will receive a courtesy notification of your number of absences. You may be referred to the Director to discuss your absences.
  • 20% of absence in 8-week course– You may be dropped from the program. Once you have missed 20% of class, you will be allowed to attend class, but you may not be allowed to sit for the mid-term or final exam as you have earned an ‘F’.
  • 20% of absence in 16-week course– You may be dropped from the program. Once you have missed 20% of class, you will be allowed to attend class, but you may not be allowed to sit for the mid-term or final exam as you have earned an ‘F’.

*NOTE—Continuing F/J students are counted absent from the first day of the next session whether the student formally registers into the next session by the first day of class. Registering late does not start the attendance count, the first day of each session does.

It is important for you to be in class every day to successfully complete each term of study at the GLS. If you have problems that are causing your absences, please make an appointment with the International Student Office.

Students holding an F/J must pay attention to their attendance. It is required by law that F/J students not attending classes as scheduled be reported to the appropriate United States Governmental Agencies.

Any student who is absent for three (3) consecutive school days without an approved leave of absence will automatically be reported to the International Student Office (ISO). An approved leave of absence requires documentation of the reason for absence and must be approved by the Director of the International Student Office.

Academic Honesty Policy

In addition to learning the English language, students are here to learn academic standards for higher education, including academic honesty. To summarize the Gulf Language School at North American University’s academic honesty policy, on tests, homework, essays, and presentations:

  1. Students will do their own, independent work.
  2. When outside sources are used, students will cite sources according to program rules.

When to cite sources?

  1. When you use a chart, graph, photo or text from another source.
  2. When you use paraphrased ideas from another source that are not common knowledge.
  3. When you use direct quotations. “ Exact words ”
  4. When you use statistics from another source.

How to Cite Sources: Presentations

Ideas, Graphs & Photo Credits

As You are Speaking: “According to the USDA, only a small part of our diet should come from oils or fat.”

Or: “Information from the USDA recommends that people eat more vegetables and grains than meat.”

How to Cite Sources: Writing

Journalistic‐style citations: Levels 1, 2

1.  The United States Department of Agriculture recommends that people do some form of physical activity each day, in addition to watching what they eat. (Students use a reporting phrase: says that, states that, found that, reported, etc.)

2. Formal documentation style: Level 3 and beyond

The new USDA food pyramid also has guidelines for physical activity: 30 minutes a day for adults, and 60 minutes a day for children (Vail 6).

Works Cited APA

Vail, Kathleen. “New Food for Thought from USDA.” American School Board Journal 193.1 (Jan. 2006): 6-6. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Xavier University Library, Cincinnati, OH. 16 Apr. 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com>.
  1. Models provided by your teachers (All levels)
  2. citationmachine.net (Levels 3 – 6)
  3. Turnitin.com (Levels 3 – 6)
  4. Documentation manuals (Level 3 – 6) MLA, APA and others
  5. Preventing plagiarism

Gulf Language School’s Academic Honesty Policy

The pursuit of truth demands high standards of personal honesty. Academic and professional life requires a trust based upon integrity of the written and spoken word. Accordingly, violations of certain standards of ethical behavior will not be tolerated at the Gulf Language School at North American University.

These include theft, cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized assistance in assignments and tests, unauthorized copying of computer software, the falsification of results and material submitted in reports or admission and registration documents, and the falsification of any academic record including letters of recommendation.

All work submitted for academic evaluation must be the student’s own. Certainly, the activities of other scholars will influence all students. However, the direct and unattributed use of another’s efforts is prohibited as is the use of any work untruthfully submitted as one’s own.

Penalties for violations of this policy may include one or more of the following: a zero for that assignment or test, an “F” in the course, and expulsion from the University. The director of the GLS, which the student is enrolled, is to be informed in writing of all such incidents, though the teacher has full authority to assign the grade for the assignment, test, or course. If disputes of interpretation arise, the student, faculty member, and coordinator should attempt to resolve the difficulty. If this is unsatisfactory, the director will rule in the matter. As a final appeal, the academic vice president will call a committee of faculty for the purpose of making a final determination.

Actions taken for violation of program policy

Unintentional Plagiarism

Student is warned and can re‐do the assignment if the teacher agrees.

Intentional Plagiarism

1st offense: Student is warned and can re‐do the assignment with a grade reduction.
2nd offense: Student receives a failing grade for the assignment.
3rd offense: Student receives a failing grade for the course.
4th offense: Students is dismissed from the program.

Remember: Language‐Learning Takes Time!

  1. We respect good, hard work even when it is not perfect.
  2. Never plagiarize or copy others’ words because you want your English to be “better.”
  3. Honest mistakes are your best teachers!

Online Language Practices

For Beginning and Intermediate Learners:

  • News in Levels: is a great site to build reading, listening and vocabulary.  Try levels 0, 1 & 2
  • Connect with English: A video story series with everyday language.
    Note: If your browser is set block pop-ups, check “Always allow pop-ups from www.learner.org.”
  • News for You: Read and listen to current news stories in easy-to-understand English. (Subscriber password now needed.)
  • USA Learns: Free, multi-media lessons to learn English, for Beginning, Low Intermediate and Intermediate Students. Produced by the US Department of Education. Directions in English or Spanish.
  • Spelling and Typing Practice
  • ELLLO: English Language Listening Lab Online.
  • Sight Words:   Readers should know these words instantly and automatically.

General Interest-Intermediate to Advanced:

  • News in Levels: is a great site to build reading, listening and vocabulary. Try levels 2 (intermediate) & 3 (advanced)
  • Pronunciation: A website with videos of the sounds of English
  • Eyercize:  Pacing to increase your reading speed and move your eyes from left to right.
  • The Polyglot Project: Supported reading in English for speakers of Portuguese, Turkish, Spanish, French, German or Italian
  • Living on Earth
  • National Public Radio
  • Story Corps: Listening to ordinary people tell their interesting stories.
  • This American Life: A radio program with interesting and unusual stories about life in America.

Academic English for Advanced Learners:

Test Preparation:

Keyboarding (Typing) Practice:

Online Dictations:

Online Dictionaries

  • Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary: Designed for English language learerns.
  • Dictionary.com: After looking up a word, scroll to the bottom of the page: You may find the definition of the English word in your native language.
  • Longman ESL Dictionary: To learn how to best use the dictionary, click “how to use.”
  • Merriam Webster Dictionary: Type a word in the Online Dictionary box, and hit “search.” When the definition comes up, click on the speaker icon to hear the word pronounced.
  • Merriam Webster’s Learners Dictionary:  (For ESL students) Subscribe to a free “word-of-the-day” lesson, do pronunciation practice, and more.
  • Visuwords: A remarkable graphical dictionary. Type in a word and view the results in colors, shapes and lines.

Word Choice

The way that words combine or “collocate” is an important part of how they are used in the English language. Thanks to computers, we now have access to real data about how words are used in written and spoken English. These tools are called concordancers.

Language students should know how to use both a dictionary and a concordancer! These websites can help you check your word combinations so that you can improve the fluency and accuracy of your writing. They are also useful when editing paraphrases.

  • “Just the Word” – Type in a word and click on “show combinations.” Click within results to see the original texts.
    Just the Word uses the British National Corpus.
  • Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) – An increasingly popular site. “Enter” the home page, then type in a word and click to discover other words with which it often occurs.