English Preparatory School

ENGLISH PREPARATORY
SCHOOL

Programme Type

English Preparatory School

Duration

1 Semester to 4 Semester

Contact

Director

Sen. Ins. İnanç Uçaröz

Dear EPS Students,

Congratulations on your choice. Needless to say, you made an excellent choice as ARUCAD is the first and only English-medium Creative Arts University in Northern Cyprus that provides you with the opportunity to obtain not only an Art qualification but also develop English language knowledge and skills to integrate successfully into academics and your future career. More specifically, there is a bidirectional relation between Arts and the English language. Art is universal and international in essence and English is the language for international communication. Art studies facilitate students’ foreign language and English as knowing an international language is most likely to help our students to access further information about Art Studies. This will certainly assist our students to attain better outcomes in their field of studies and their future careers.

The main aim of the English Preparatory School English language courses which are an integral part of the education at ARUCAD is to equip our students with the necessary English language knowledge and skills, and study skills to help them integrate into the academic community successfully and to excel in their academic studies at the Faculty. In addition, we aim to help our students to develop 21st Century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, problem-solution, as well as cooperative and collaborative skills to support their future career development.

We, EPS at ARUCAD, aim to provide high quality language education by referring to current international standards in English language teaching in each step of our English language teaching and learning processes. To this end, all English language teaching and learning programs have been mapped to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and English language proficiency levels are determined in line with A1, A2, B1 and B2 CEFR Levels. Last but not least, all the English language courses are delivered with state-of-the-art technology and effective foreign language teaching and learning methods and techniques by well-qualified English language instructors, almost all speaking English as their native language.

Our valued students, we would like to remind you that it is you, as an individual, who would take the main responsibility of your learning to achieve success. To this end, you are advised to attend the classes regularly, study systematically, use every opportunity to practice English and extend your English language learning beyond the classroom by making use of advanced technology and internet. Please feel free to obtain support from your teachers to further improve your English language learning. The English language, which you will be acquiring at ARUCAD will most likely be a great asset for you in achieving success both at Faculty and your future profession. Overall, please put utmost effort to take the full advantage of the learning opportunities English Preparatory School offers you.

I wish you the best of luck with your academic endeavors.

With my sincere respect and love,

History

Arkın University of Creative Arts and Design (ARUCAD) is a private, non-profit higher education institution which was established in 2017 in the center of the ancient port city of Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus. ARUCAD provides education in the fields of Art, Design and Communication and started offering courses in the Academic Year 2018-2019. Since then, ARUCAD has continually been improving its quality standards and aiming to obtain new memberships of international accreditation organizations to help its students to be a part of the global Art, Design and Communication network.

English Preparatory School was established and started offering English language courses in 2018 along with the establishment of ARUCAD. The student intake to the English Preparatory School has increased each academic year over the three-year period and currently, over 100 students are registered for English language courses at EPS. In line with ARUCAD’s vision, EPS aims to continuously develop to achieve a high-quality English language education which meets the international foreign language teaching standards to help ARUCAD students to succeed in their academic studies, professions and social lives. Overall, EPS, as one of its important units of ARUCAD has a diverse cultural learning environment where students can share their own cultures in a friendly academic environment and develop multicultural understanding to integrate into the global world successfully.

Bu çevrenin bir parçası olmanın tek koşulu ise öğrenme tutkusuyla yaratıcı düşünme ve üretme becerilerinizi geliştirmektir.

Sanat Fakültesi’nin vizyonu disiplinlerarasılık kavramını önceleyen özgür sanat eğitimine dayanmaktadır. Vizyonumuzun bir parçası olarak bölümlerimizdeki öğretim programları çok-disiplinli bir bakış açısı ile hazırlanmıştır. Fakültemiz, yenilikçi öğretim programları ile günümüz sanat ortamının yeni savlarının ele alınması ve kavranması için teori, araştırma ve uygulamanın bileşkesinden oluşan bir köprü oluşturmayı hedeflemektedir. Disiplinlerarası çeşitlilik, sivil katılım ve kültürel alışverişe verdiğimiz önemin tüm öğrencilerimize günümüz sanat ortamına adapte olabilmeleri için gerekli becerileri kazanma şansı vereceğine de yürekten inanmaktayız.

Overview

Arkın University of Creative Arts and Design is an English medium university and English Preparatory School is a unit within ARUCAD which is directly attached to the Rectorate. The English Language proficiency requirement for students to be able to directly commence their academic studies at the Faculty is CEFR B1 for undergraduate and CEFR B2 for master’s and Ph. D students. EPS was established with the aim of providing English language courses for newly admitted ARUCAD students who are not at the required English language proficiency levels to successfully pursue their academic studies at the Faculty. EPS offers English language courses to these students at four different levels of English; Prep A1, Prep A2, Prep B1 and Prep B2 levels to enhance their English language knowledge and skills to the required English language levels in order to enable them to succeed in their academic studies at the Faculty. Students can complete their studies at each level in minimum one semester. The exit levels for undergraduate students is CEFR B1 whereas CEFR B2 for master’s and Ph. D students is required. The duration of standard education at EPS is minimum one year and maximum 2 years.

Mission

The mission of the EPS at ARUCAD is to support ARUCAD students with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds to attain proficiency in English language to excel in their interdisciplinary academic studies by adhering to the following basic principles:

High quality English language education which is aligned to international foreign language teaching standards
Provision of a cooperative and collaborative, and supportive environment
Promoting student autonomy
Professional Development
Respect
Integrity

Objectives

EPS adheres to a set of objectives to accomplish its mission, and these are as follows:

To support ARUCAD students to continuously develop their English language proficiency level equivalent to the Common European Framework Reference for Languages (CEFR),
To integrate a set of effective pedagogical methods and techniques to facilitate students’ English language learning and study skills,
To facilitate the EPS staff’s continuous professional development,
To integrate the state-of-the-art technology into English language instruction to facilitate ARUCAD students’ English language learning,
To inculcate the basic values of integrity, cooperation, teamwork and respect for diversity.

Vision

To excel in English language education by sustaining a continuous development for a high quality of English language education to live up to the international standards as well as developing as a well-respected and well-recognized institute locally and worldwide.

Values, Aims and Learning Outcomes

Values

The core values at EPS are as follows:

Transparency
Trust
Equality and respect to diversity
Commitment to professionalism
Respect for ethical values
Team-work, cooperation and mutual understanding
Opportunities for professional development
Creativity

General Aims

Our principal aim is to bring students’ English language knowledge, skills and competencies to a level which will enable them to succeed academically, professionally and socially.
It is our mission to prepare our students for success in the global environment. Our aim is to promote the benefits of plurilingualism and multi-culturalism in language teaching and learning.

Learning Outcomes in Relation to General Aims

To implement, monitor and evaluate established and new approaches in the classroom.
To get students actively engaged into their learning by using state-of-the-art technology and self-assessment.
To increase student investment in the learning processes both in and out of the classroom.
To design course content and ensure that course delivery caters for all learning styles, students’ interests and needs.
To keep the level of the language being taught relevant to the student’s levels and needs.

Total Hours of Teaching and Learning

The number of hours needed to achieve different English proficiency levels as proposed by ALTE and total English language teaching and learning hours allocated at EPS at each level are indicated below:

Table 1: Total hours of English language teaching and learning

	The number of teaching hours required to attain a CEFR proficiency level according to The Association of Language Testers of Europe (ALTE)	The number of teaching hours allocated in each course level at EPS
A1+A2	Approximately 270-300 hours	370 hours
A2	Approximately 180-200 hours	370 hours
B1	Approximately 350-400 hours	370 hours
B2	Approximately 500-600 hours	Approximately 370 guided teaching hours and 130 hours extra project work hours, individual work, and online learning.

The number of students in each class is approximately twenty-five/thirty and state of the art technology is actively integrated into English language courses to promote students’ learning and autonomy. EPS offers minimum 24 hours of English language instruction per week at each proficiency level and duration of each lesson is 50 minutes. Students are required to attend 70% of the English classes. Those students who fail to meet the attendance requirement cannot sit the Final and English proficiency exam and repeat his/her English language course.

In consideration with the current situation and the pandemic, English language courses may be conducted face-to-face, online or as blended teaching and learning. In case of necessity, online English language courses are delivered via Microsoft Teams online teaching and learning platforms. Microsoft Teams Students’ Guideline can be accessed on the EPS website.

EPS English language learners will achieve the following learning outcomes at the end of their English language studies at different proficiency levels.

Exemption Criteria

A: Exemption Criteria and ARUCAD’s English Language Placement Examination (ELPE)

ARUCAD is a Creative Arts Tertiary institution where the medium of instruction is English language. The newly admitted ARUCAD students are required to have acquired adequate English language proficiency to be able to pursue their studies at faculty level successfully. More specifically, the required English language proficiency to be admitted to undergraduate studies is CEFR B1, and CEFR B2 for master’s and Ph. D students.

The new ARUCAD students who are unable to confirm their English language proficiency levels with an internationally accepted English language certificate as indicated in Chart A have to take ARUCAD’s English Language Placement Examination (ELPE) after they complete their registration process. The main aim of ARUCAD’s ELPE is to identify newly admitted ARUCAD students’ English language proficiency levels and place them into the appropriate English language courses. Students who are able to achieve the required pass grades from ARUCAD’s English Placement Exam as well as students with a valid English language certificate (see Table 1) are exempted from the English Preparatory School’s English language program and they are directly admitted to the Faculty. On the other hand, students who are unable to achieve a pass grade from the English Language Placement Exam are placed in the appropriate English language course in line with the grades they obtain from the exam.

Table 1: ARUCAD’s English Preparatory School Exemption Criteria

Name of the Test	Minimum Grades Required for Undergraduate Studies B1 CEFR	Minimum Grades Required for MA/MSc Studies B2 CEFR	Validity of the Exam Results
ELPE ( ARUCAD’s English Language Placement Examination)	60/100	80/100	N/A
KPDS /ÜDS / YDS / YÖKDİL (Kamu Personeli Yabancı Dil Bilgisi Seviye Tespit Sınavı , Üniversitelerarası Kurul Yabancı Dil Sınavı ve Yabancı Dil Bilgisi Seviye Tespit Sınavı /Yükseköğretim Kurumları Yabancı Dil Sınavı )	50	70	5 Years
IELTS (International English Language Testing System)	Minimum 5.0	Minimum 6.00	2 Years
TOEFL IBT (Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language)	Minimum 60	Minimum 70	2 Years
TOEFL CBT (Computer-based Test of English as a Foreign Language)	Minimum 170	Minimum 197	2 Years
TOEFL PBT (Paper-based Test of English as a Foreign Language)	Minimum 497	Minimum 530	2 Years
English Language GCE/IGCSE (General Certificate of Education/ International General Certificate of Secondary Education)	Minimum C	Minimum B	Valid indefinitely
FCE (First Certificate in English)	Minimum C	Minimum B	Valid indefinitely
CPE/CAE (Certificate of Proficiency in English/ Certificate of Proficiency in English)	Minimum C	Minimum B	Valid indefinitely
SAT (The SAT Reasoning Test)	Reading &Writing: Minimum 420	Reading and Writing: Minimum 440	5 Years
PTE (Pearson Test of English)	Minimum 45	Minimum 71	2 Years
English Language WAEC/WASSCE (West African Examinations Council)	Minimum C6	Minimum C5	10 Years

B: Rules and Regulations for exemption from ARUCAD’s English Language Placement Examination

The newly admitted ARUCAD students are requested to take the following rules and regulations into consideration with regards to ARUCAD’s English Language Placement Examination (ELPE) and the exemption from the English Preparatory School English language program: (English Preparatory School Establishment, Operation and Working Principles By-law, article 11, items 4-10)

(4) The main aim of ARUCAD’s ELPE is to identify newly admitted ARUCAD students’ English language proficiency levels and place them into the appropriate proficiency levels at the English Preparatory School.

(5) ARUCAD’s English Language Placement Examination is administered twice every academic year. New students who registered to ARUCAD are eligible to take the English Language Placement Examination at the beginning of the Fall and Spring Semesters. Needless to say, each student can take the test only once.

(6) Students who are able to achieve the required pass grades from ARUCAD’s English Placement Exam as well as students with a valid English language certificate (see Table 1) are exempted from the English Preparatory School’s program and they are directly admitted to the Faculty.

(7) ARUCAD’s new students who are able to provide proof of successful completion of their English Preparatory School English language education at another university with a valid document (B1 for undergraduate studies and B2 for master’s/Ph. D studies) will be exempted from the English Preparatory School studies.

(8) MA and Graduate Students are subject to provisions in Article 3 of “ARUCAD Rules and Regulations for Graduate Studies” concerning the English language requirements and exemption from the English Preparatory School English language program.

(9) It should be noted that ARUCAD’s new students with a valid English language certificate, and students who have achieved a pass grade from the English Language Placement Exam, are still eligible to study at the English Preparatory School English language program with their consent to further improve their English language proficiency. Those students are placed in Prep B1 or Prep B2 English language courses.

(10) English Preparatory School students are placed in Prep A1, Prep A2 (basic user) and Prep B1, and Prep B2 (independent user) level courses in accordance with the grades they achieve from English Preparatory School, English Language Placement Test as indicated in Table 2. Normally the duration of each of English language proficiency level is one academic semester except for A1+A2 which can be completed in one semester and every semester, if necessary, all of these English language proficiency levels are available for education. A student has to follow the program which is determined in line with his/her performance on the written and/or oral English Language Placement Examination.

Table 2: English Language Placement Exam Results and Students’ Classification

Prep A1/A2 Level	Prep A2	B1(Bachelor Degree Students)	B2 (MA/Ph. D students)	Faculty
0-20	21-40	41-59	60-79	60+ (BA Students) 80+ (MA/Ph. D students)

Assessment and Evaluation

Assessment and Evaluation at the English Preparatory School

Assessment and evaluation practices are an integral part of the teaching and learning processes at EPS. Assessment methods and techniques implemented at EPS primarily aim to support students’ learning (assessment for learning) as well as measuring students’ learning (assessment of learning). For example, EPS students are assessed by a number of ongoing assignments (formative assessment) such as midterms, quizzes, essay writing, projects etc. over the course of the semester to help them further improve their English language learning whereas a number of summative exams such as Final Exams and English Proficiency Exams are given at the end of students’ studies, which evaluate whether the students have developed required English language proficiency to commence their academic studies at the Faculty. These two different types of assessment and evaluation methods and techniques, namely formative and summative assessment aim to provide EPS learners with equal opportunities to be successful in their English language learning journeys and obviously, academic studies.

Needless to say, we, at EPS, primarily aim to develop our students’ ability to effectively communicate in speech and writing in English language academically, professionally and socially. To this end, we focus on teaching and assessing our students’ learning in four integrated language skill areas, namely Reception (listening and Reading Reception), Production (Spoken and Written Production), Interaction (Spoken and Written Interaction), and Mediation equally. More specifically, all our exams aim to assess our students’ communicative abilities in these integrated skill areas, and each skill area is being equally weighted. With respect to types of exams, we assess our students by “Portfolio assessment (% 30)”, “Mid-term Exam (% 30)” and “Final Exam (% 40)”. Prep B1/B2 students who successfully complete their B1 studies are required to take an English Proficiency Test at the end of their Prep B1/B2 levels.

With respect to Portfolio assessment, it includes the students’ assignments pursued throughout the semester. For example, essay writing, projects, quizzes, book summary, students’ attendance and participation to classes, workshops organized by the Faculties, online tasks and activities etc. Students sit mid-term exams after 7-8 weeks of instruction and final exams after 16 weeks of instruction. There are no classes on exam days. The durations of the written English language examinations are usually between 90 and 120 minutes. The place, time and format of the exams are announced in advance to the students on notice boards a well as on Microsoft Teams.

Please find below detailed information regarding the assessment processes, their content and weights in Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4 below. Please check EPS Student Handbook and Article 12 about EPS examinations and success in English Preparatory School Establishment, Operation and Working Principles By-law (hyperlinks are given)

Table 1: An overview of the EPS Formative and Summative Assessment–Prep A1 and Prep A2

Method	Format	Weightage
Mid-Term Exams	Overall, the exam is divided into 4 components: listening, reading, language usage, writing and speaking.	30 %
Final Exams	Overall, the exam is divided into 4 components: listening, reading, language usage, writing and speaking.	40 %
Portfolio	The portfolio consists of attendance and participation, and online activities (5 %), achievement tests (quizzes) (10 %), projects (composition writing and presentation) (10 %), book review and presentation (5 %) and self -reflection questions.	30 %
Total		100 %

Table 2: An Overview for EPS Formative and Summative Assessment – Prep B1 & Prep B2

Method	Format	Weightage
Mid-Term Exams	Overall, the exam is divided into 4 sections, i.e., listening, reading, language, writing and speaking.	30 %
Final Exams	Overall, the exam is divided into 4 sections, i.e., listening, reading, language usage, writing and speaking.	40 %
Portfolio	The portfolio consists of attendance and participation and online activities (5 %) achievement tests (quizzes) (8 %), a research report/film review (5 %), essay writing (12 %) including opinion essay, cause and effect essay, problem solution essay, and self-reflection questions.	30 %
Total		100 %

All students at different English language proficiency levels are given a mid-term examination in seven or eight weeks’ time following the commencement of their semester studies and a final examination after 16 weeks of instruction. In addition, students are required to submit the assignments included in the portfolio assessment section in consideration with the deadlines shown on the weekly schemes of work which can be found on Microsoft Teams. A student’s end of semester final grade is the total of 30 % of the student’s midterm exam grade, 40 % of the student’s final exam grade and 30 % of the student’s portfolio assessment grade.

Prep B1 and Prep B2 students are also given an English Proficiency Exam at the end of their Prep B1 and Prep B2 studies in order to be eligible to commence their academic studies at the faculty. The English Proficiency Exam is administered at the end of each semester and the beginning of the Fall semester. Students, who are unable to obtain a pass grade from this exam, will repeat their studies at EPS. Prep B1 and Prep B2 final proficiency exam grade is the combination of 60 % of the total score they obtain from the English Proficiency Examination and 40 % of their end of semester final grade (30 % of Portfolio assessment, 30 % of Midterm Examination, and 40% of Final Exam).

English Proficiency Exam

English Proficiency Exam

The EPS English Proficiency Exam which Prep B1 and Prep B2 students are required to sit at the end of Prep B1 and B2 aims to assess whether students’ have developed the required English language proficiency to pursue their academic learning in their chosen faculty successfully. Only the students who complete their Prep B1 and Prep B2 level studies are eligible to take the English Proficiency Examination. The date, place and time for the exam is announced on the Students’ Notice Board and EPS website.

The exam consists of four components; namely, listening, reading, writing and speaking sections with equal weightage. B1 end of semester scores (40%) are combined with the result of the proficiency exam (60 %) to achieve a total score out of 100.

English Proficiency Exam final grades (the combination of the 60 % of the English Proficiency Exam and 40 % of the Prep B1/B2 end of semester grade) which the students are required to obtain in order to be able to pass to faculty are as follows:

Minimum 60 points for undergraduate students
Minimum 80 points for Master’s/Ph. D Degree Program students

Table 3: An overview of the EPS English Proficiency Examination

PROFICIENCY EXAM CEFR B1/B2
Listening Reception and Mediation (listening and notetaking and paragraph writing)	20 points	Standardized listening texts to assess the listening skill, listening and notetaking and converting notes into a paragraph.
Reading Reception	20 points	Standardized reading texts to assess students’ reading and understanding skills
Writing Production and Interaction	20 points	Essay writing to assess the students’ writing skills and written Interaction (formal & Informal) such as responding to a blog post, email, writing a complaint letter etc.
Speaking Production and Interaction	20 points	Speaking activities needed to assess the skills to engage in conversation in different context (academic, social etc.).
Language Usage	20 points	Scaffolding competences such as vocabulary, grammar and functional language is assessed in context.

The medium of instruction at ARUCAD is English language. English Preparatory School offers intensive English language courses which aim to equip newly admitted ARUCAD students with CEFR B1/CEFR B2 English language proficiency levels to enable them to successfully pursue their academic studies at their chosen Faculties. To this end, EPS offers a high-quality English language program which is well aligned to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). A great importance is attached to support ARUCAD students in developing effective oral and written communication skills through an integrated skill curriculum, which fosters active and independent learning. All the educational processes and materials including English language proficiency levels, curriculum, syllabus, assessment and course materials are closely aligned with the CEFR and Pearson’s Global Scale of English since both of these international foreign language teaching frameworks are deemed as reliable, accurate and well-recognized standards which promote high quality, and effective English language teaching and learning.

The intensive English language course at the English Preparatory School is designed to help students to achieve a CEFR B1 level of proficiency in the English language for undergraduate students and CEFR B2 level English language proficiency for graduate students. Accordingly, EPS offers four levels of intensive English language instruction, Prep A1, Prep A2, Prep B1, and Prep B2, correlated with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

Newly admitted ARUCAD students can start their English language learning journey at Prep A1 level and finish at either Prep B1 or Prep B2 level. Each level, except for Prep A1+Prep A2 courses, can be completed in one semester. It is possible to complete a combination of Prep A1 and Prep A2 courses in one semester but this is not possible for other levels. It should be noted that, many factors such as students’ motivation, attendance and participation to courses, their reasons or purpose for learning the English language and the amount of time spent on individual study have impacts on students’ English language learning and achievements. Furthermore, the number of hours different learners need to develop English language proficiency at different levels greatly depends on a range of other factors such as student’s age and motivation, background, amount of prior study and the extent of exposure to the language outside the classroom. Learning a language is like climbing a mountain: the ascent gets harder the higher you climb: It does not take the same time to reach each level. It will take longer to get to B2 from B1 than it does to get to A2 from A1.

Can understand the main ideas of complex texts on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical suggestions in his/her field of specialization.
Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party.
Can produce clear, detailed texts on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc.
Can deal with most situations likely to arise while travelling in an area where the language is spoken.
Can produce simple connected text on familiar topics or of personal interest.
Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.

Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e. g very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).
Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters.
Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas in areas of immediate need.

Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type.
Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has.
Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.