The University of Michigan English Language Institute has experimented successfully with offering extra-curricular mini-courses for students of English as a second language. The courses provide an optional activity in which the exposure to English is through a real situation in learning subject matter. After several successful attempts, and some not so successful, the faculty isolated the factors to be considered in planning such a supplementary program. These factors include: (1) Courses should be offered at a time in the semester when a psychological break is needed, and when it will not interfere with the students' regular academic work: (2) A subject matter should be found that the teacher enjoys and that the students are not likely to have been exposed to: (3) The actual material to be read or discussed should be carefully chosen. It is advisable to use something simple and authentic; (4) Audio-visual aids should be used to make the course more appealing; (5) A series of three or four lectures in one week seems to constitute the right length for the course; (6) Not much, if any, outside work should be required, and students ought not to be forced to participate if they do not want to; and (7) Each lecture should be self-contained. Subject-matter possibilities for mini-courses are unlimited: what is important is the rewarding feeling of a shared interest or experience and a realization that English can be vehicle for real communication. (HW)