Mini Courses

The English Language Institute (ELI) offers English mini courses for international and multilingual students at the University of Michigan who speak and write English as an additional language. ELI classes are small, interactive, and provide every student with extensive one-on-one feedback.

Open to undergraduate students in all schools
No extra course fees—included in full-time tuition
Courses count toward the 120 credits required for graduation
Graded Credit/No Credit (does not affect GPA)
Register via Wolverine Access

Speaking Special Topics Courses for Fall 2025:

ELI 292 Topics in EAP: Culture & Communication in the U.S. (1 credit)

Gain confidence and fluency for socializing in English. Explore the cultural foundations of everyday conversations in the U.S. (meets with ELI 541) Meets for 10 weeks.

ELI 392 Topics in EAP: Discussion & Oral Argumentation (1 credit)

Enhance your speaking skills for effectively participating in class discussions as well as other formal and informal settings (meets with ELI 534) Meets for 10 weeks.

See All Fall 2025 ELI Undergraduate Courses

ELI 131 - Interactive Communication

This course is designed to develop conversational fluency. You will explore and practice modes of communication that fluent, experienced speakers of English use in academic settings. You will develop your interactive speaking skills and learn to understand the cultural practices of language and communication in academic situations such as seminars, meetings with professors, and collaboration with classmates.

Intended Audience:

This course is designed for international students and others who speak/write English as a second language who desire to improve spoken fluency or their ability to interact in academic contexts.

(1 credit)

ELI 210 - English Vocabulary for Speaking and Writing

Do you find that you sometimes lack the words to say exactly what you want to express? Do you wish to write in a more academic style? This course offers a unique interactive online approach to enhancing your written and spoken English vocabulary.

In this course, you will:

develop vocabulary-building strategies
learn how to make more effective word choices
expand your everyday, informal vocabulary
learn how to use free online vocabulary tools

The course is highly individualized to meet the language needs of each student. We will work together to establish your vocabulary goals, plan your own personalized learning path, and track your progress.

Intended Audience:

Undergraduate students of any language background seeking to enhance their vocabulary usage in speaking and writing.

(1 credit)

ELI 222 - Writing for Campus and Career

Develop your writing skills for success in both academic and professional contexts. We will analyze different types of academic and professional writing that you may be expected to produce both on and off-campus, including statements of purpose (SoPs), high-stakes emails, personal bio statements, and different types of essays.

in this course you will:

Analyze a variety of types of writing in and beyond your major
Complete 4-6 short writing assignments, including at least one collaborative text
Engage in peer review
Revise your writing based on instructor feedback
Improve the grammar and flexibility of your writing

Intended Audience:

This course may be right for you if you are an international students or other second-language writer at any stage of your undergraduate studies.

(2 credits)

ELI 224 - Critical Reading for Effective Writing

Develop your critical reading, fluency and comprehension skills in order to become a more effective and efficient reader. You will analyze a range of academic texts in order to identify elements of effective writing and the ways you can apply these techniques in your own writing. Course materials will include texts that the class chooses together based on students’ majors and academic interests in order to build vocabulary and recognize organizational patterns used in different disciplines and writing situations.

Course activities include:

Close reading of academic texts
Group annotation of texts
Individualized extensive reading for fluency building with a weekly reading log
Summary and critique writing
Building a bank of useful texts in a citation manager such as Mendeley

Intended audience:

This course is designed for sophomore, junior, and senior international students, including transfer students and non-degree seeking students, or others who speak and write English as an additional language who seek to improve their academic English reading and writing skills.

(2 credits)

ELI 236 - Pronunciation I

This class will enhance your ability to make yourself understood, whether on campus or in the larger community. We’ll identify the features of pronunciation that can maximize your clarity, and will introduce ways to practice these features to make them more automatic.

You’ll learn how to identify, prioritize, and improve the features of connected speech (e.g. syllabification, intonation, word stress, and rhythm, linking, voice projection) and of specific sounds (e.g. r/l, f/p, vowels) that will have the biggest impact on your own speaking clarity. Awareness of these features of English pronunciation will also support your listening to conversational English.

Through conversations and discussions, use of free online technologies, dramatic performance, small group tutorials, and strategies for improving pronunciation outside of class, you’ll learn how to hear your own pronunciation patterns and how to adjust these patterns to maximize your ability to make yourself more easily understood on campus and beyond.

Intended Audience:

This course is designed for international students and others who speak/write English as a second language who seek to improve the clarity of their pronunciation in English. This course can be taken alongside other speaking ELI courses.

(1 credit)

ELI 292 - Topics in EAP: Culture & Communication in the U.S.

(Meets with ELI 541)

In this class, you will learn relevant cultural information for everyday conversations in the U.S. in order to communicate effectively both on and off campus. You will gain strategies to bridge cultural differences and discuss “challenging topics” such as cultural values and social justice issues. You will practice socializing in English to feel more comfortable and confident in intercultural interactions, learn how to make connections across cultures, talk about your culture(s) in English, and explore your own identity and culture in relation to others.

The course may be right for you if you are an undergraduate or graduate student in your second semester or beyond and are relatively comfortable speaking English, but feel that you sometimes lack the cultural knowledge to participate in everyday conversations. It might also be right for you if you are a more advanced student, but have limited opportunities to use English in your daily life. Students often take this course after completing ELI 531 Language and Communication, ELI 533 Interactive Listening and Communication or ELI 534 Discussion and Oral Argumentation.

Course activities include:

Weekly short discussion posts on topics in US culture
Pair and group discussions
Visiting speakers on topics in US culture
Discussions with US-raised U-M students

(1 credit)

ELI 392 - Topics in EAP: Discussion & Oral Argumentation

(Meets with ELI 534)

In this course, you will develop the interactive speaking skills you need to effectively participate in class discussions and other formal and informal group settings. You might consider this course if you are a relatively advanced, comfortable English speaker and want to continue to refine your ability to hold your own in challenging, dynamic speaking situations.

Course activities include:

Practice using rhetorical strategies in multiple discussion formats, with feedback and evaluation
Active listening exercises to participate in rapid exchanges
Analyze recorded language used for rhetorical strategies
4-6 problem-solution discussions led by Instructor and fellow students
Techniques to develop fluency

(1 credit)

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Mini Courses

Speaking Special Topics Courses for Fall 2025:

ELI 292 Topics in EAP: Culture & Communication in the U.S. (1 credit)

ELI 392 Topics in EAP: Discussion & Oral Argumentation (1 credit)

ELI 131 - Interactive Communication

ELI 210 - English Vocabulary for Speaking and Writing

ELI 222 - Writing for Campus and Career

ELI 224 - Critical Reading for Effective Writing

ELI 236 - Pronunciation I

ELI 292 - Topics in EAP: Culture & Communication in the U.S.

ELI 392 - Topics in EAP: Discussion & Oral Argumentation