When looking into taking a course in English, it is likely that you will consider the idea of studying the language in the US. There are a number of reasons for this – aside from being a place where the majority of residents speak English fluently and a world leader in education, the US is also a superpower in terms of business, entrepreneurship, finance and industry. Studying English in a country that could open up these doors once your course has finished would probably be a very wise choice.
Types of English language courses in the US
There are multiple different English language courses that you can take in the US, including business English, and English for architecture, aviation, banking and finance, executives, human resources, lawyers, medicine, retail or telecommunications – amongst numerous other options. Whatever career you are going into or university course you may be starting afterwards, there will be an English language course available in the US that will prepare you for it.
There are of course more generic English language courses for those who do not have a specific career in mind and just want to hone their skills. If this is you, options include conversation and culture and idioms – which you can choose to study full or part-time, depending on your lifestyle and previous commitments.
IELTS vs TOEFL
There are various different certificates that can be taken, all of which are well regarded as giving a good working knowledge of English. The top certificates include the Cambridge exams, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). All of these can be taken at language schools across the US.
Major cities in the US are of course hubs for English language teaching, as you would probably expect. New York has ten schools offering almost 60 different courses, whilst Boston has 13 institutions and close to a hundred programmes that you can choose from. In both of these cities you can study at highly regarded institutions such as Kaplan International College, EC English Language Schools and Embassy CES.
On the west coast, the most popular centres for English teaching are found in LA (nine schools) and San Francisco (three schools). The same schools that are mentioned above are available in California, as well as further north in Seattle – another popular location for international students looking to learn English.