Welcome, and some friendly advice…
A warm welcome to all students who are viewing this website and wondering whether they will be in AGU Prep. English in the 2023/24 Academic Year!
Of course, starting at an unfamiliar institution and planning to do all your academic work in English is not an easy step. After thinking carefully about learning in an English prep. program, some students change their minds. And there is no shame in that! If AGU Prep. is not for you, then it is not for you. But if you think that you would be a good fit for this program, then we would look forward to seeing you at AGU.
Here are a few thoughts that I hope will help you to make a decision - a decision that is good for you.
- Any AGU Prep. student is very fortunate to be entering a very serious, modern, language program where they will learn how to use the world’s most international language.
- All teachers and administrative staff in the AGU Language School are here to help all Prep. students benefit from this program. It is our aim both that you will graduate from Prep. to qualify for your faculty programs in the shortest time possible, and that you get a deep sense of satisfaction that you have learned a lot of useful knowledge and skills, both in English and in how to be an effective learner for the future.
- To get through Prep. successfully requires that a student study carefully. Particularly at the beginning, and then all through the Prep. Program, you will receive detailed advice and guidance about how to be successful. But at this preliminary stage, if I can give you one piece of advice about how to enter and do well at university, it is that you should completely change your approach to learning. You need to change from ‘school study’ mode to ‘university study’ mode. At university, you will not think of lessons as the place where you start to study, led by a teacher. Instead, you should start to study English by yourself, by engaging with all the materials and opportunities that are (and will be) available to you, even before you meet your teachers. Think of lessons, and the instructors who run them, as extra opportunities, to be benefitted from in addition to the study that you will have been doing all week by yourself anyway!
- Being an independent learner is important. I know that some students find this step very difficult, that it is not easy to be independent. Some even complain that they want teachers to ‘hold their hands’ like they did at school. But I am equally sure you know, from your reading of history, that independence has to be won; no country ever had independence ‘given’– to them - all of them (including Turkey), to be independent, had to fight. Similarly, it is no exaggeration to say that students are not given the status of independence, and they are not given success in Prep. - they have to struggle, and fight, to get it for themselves. Many students arrive at university thinking that, like in school, everything will be taught to them, but this is not how universities work. Sure, your instructors will help you, but they cannot learn for you. Quite soon after new students arrive at AGU, they will need to stand up and learn for themselves.
- The benefits of this independence for young people are enormous – the independent and mature learner will be able to learn anything, anywhere for the rest of their lives. And that is true freedom.
On behalf of all of us here at AGU, I wish you Good Luck!
Daryl York