The Rationale for Offering IEC
Since students at McGill are linguistically diverse and they may not be proficient English users, the McGill Writing Centre provides academic English courses (henceforth AEC) to ESL students. These courses are mainly for academic purposes. For instance, the course Fundamentals of Academic Writing in English “develops ESL students’ understanding and ability to apply the structural principles and conventions of academic writing genres common to graduate work at the beginning of their graduate program” (Cooper, 2016). Other AEC focus on presentation skills in an academic context (e.g., a conference presentation). It seems that there is no need to offer intensive English courses to Chinese international students because AEC have equipped them with what they need in academia. However, in this section, I will present three factors to demonstrate that IEC are necessary for CIS.
The McGill Writing Centre
The McGill Writing Centre is the Universities' vital resource for improving writing skills. Both academic and professional writing services are availiable to all McGill students. For further information and their courses, please visit https://www.mcgill.ca/mwc
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