Intensive English Program

Director: Karen Suderman

The IEP is a pre-collegiate program of study in English as a second language designed to prepare students for admission to college or career advancement. Serving groups of learners with diverse goals and needs, the program provides opportunities for life-changing cross-cultural encounters leading to sustained intercultural learning. The program consists of 20 hours per week of classroom instruction in the core academic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, research-writing, and grammar. The IEP offers language enrichment activities that may include tutoring, field trips, cultural experiences, and other activities to strengthen academic language skills.

The IEP integrated courses and weekly meetings with conversation partners give students additional hours of English practice. IEP's program of lively intercultural learning across the curriculum (LILAC) creates partnerships between IEP classes and EMU undergraduate classes to give international students opportunities to work with American peers in completing authentic academic projects with an intercultural dimension. 

There are six proficiency levels (I –VI) in the IEP. The Step-Up program is available, upon recommendation by the IEP, to qualifying students who have successfully completed a semester in level V of the IEP. These students may enroll in one course in the EMU undergraduate program with simultaneous enrollment in the IEP. Students take placement tests to determine their level. Assessments are administered at the end of the semester to evaluate students' progress. Students who complete the level V and VI and subsequently enroll at EMU for an undergraduate degree may receive up to 15 SH of credit. Before entering a full-time unrestricted undergraduate program, IEP students enter the Bridge Program.

Students may be eligible to apply for combined admission to the IEP and the undergraduate program.

Further information and application forms can be found at www.emu.edu/iep.

IEP courses in levels I through IV do not earn academic credit. For work successfully completed in levels V and VI, up to 15 undergraduate semester credit hours may be counted towards fulfilling students' language and cross-cultural requirement in the general education curriculum. Please note that an IEP "hour" equals a period of 50 minutes. Throughout the university, credit hours are based on the number of 50-minute class periods per week. Courses in the fall and spring semesters are for a 15-week duration. The summer semester is eight weeks in length; therefore, the class periods are longer each day to equal the necessary number of class time minutes for one semester of academic credit.

The program consists of 20 hours per week of classroom instruction in the basic language skills - reading, writing, research, listening, grammar, and speaking. 

Multimedia equipment helps students improve pronunciation and listening comprehension. An IEP computer lab is available on campus for student use. In general the levels are combined; levels I and II, levels III and IV, and levels V and VI meet together. When enrollment for a particular level is high enough, the level will meet individually.

IEP 100/105/200/205/300/305 Listening, Speaking, and Vocabulary

In this class the students develop skills for oral communication in a variety of English language contexts. The levels I and II focus on conversational skills, developing students' ability to understand the experiences of others and share their own. Students listen to lectures, learn to take notes, participate in group discussions, and plan and deliver oral presentations. All levels include an emphasis on learning vocabulary and improving pronunciation for effective oral communication.

IEP 110/115/210/215/310/315 Grammar

This class focuses on increasing students' understanding and accurate usage of the grammatical forms and structures necessary for successful oral and written communication in English. Students in levels I and II focus on parts of speech and their usage, simple verb tenses, basic word order, and simple sentence structure. Levels III through VI review the concepts of parts of speech, verb tenses, and sentence structure and build on them with complex verb tenses, modals and conditionals, gerunds and infinitives, passive voice, adjective and noun clauses, reported speech, and complex sentence structures.

IEP 120/125/220/225/320/325 Reading, Writing, and Research

The focus of this class is the development of skills for written communication in the academic English environment. Levels I and II focus on skills for writing at the sentence and paragraph level. Students engage readings from genres such as letters, news reports, and short stories. They begin to explore the research skills necessary for finding reliable information in libraries and on the internet. All levels include an emphasis on learning the writing conventions (spelling rules, punctuation, etc.) necessary for effective written communication. Levels III through VI build on basic reading and writing skills by moving from paragraphs to essays, adding longer academic readings (articles, textbook material, classic works of fiction, etc.), and learning to integrate sources into one's own writing. All levels include an emphasis on learning the writing conventions (spelling rules, punctuation, etc.) necessary for effective written communication.

IEP 170/175/270/275/370/375 Integrated Skills

In this class students integrate the use of language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking, and grammar) with the exploration of interesting content. Students learn about U.S. history and culture and current issues, as well as global issues and challenges. They also acquire common English idioms and expressions. A variety of creative learning activities are used, such as role- plays, field trips, group projects, film, drama, etc. In level VI student learning is fostered through direct observation and experience in the U.S. academic setting. Significant learning happens through direct involvement with people and with "live" issues in the classroom. The course involves students auditing an undergraduate or graduate class at EMU, meeting twice a week at IEP to reflect on their experiences, and expanding their knowledge of academic culture and vocabulary. Students keep journals, write reports and essays, and give oral presentations about their learning experiences.

IEP 395 Graduate Program Language Support

This class provides academic language skill input and support for students enrolled in graduate courses at EMU. Class content focuses on the topics from each student's graduate courses, while adding intensive attention to academic language skills in reading, writing, editing, researching, academic discussion, and giving presentations at the graduate level. Class tasks include working with assignments that have been given at the graduate level to bring them to a polished final product which will meet and surpass minimal expectations for graduate level performance. Additional tasks may also be assigned to support the learning. The goal of the class is to focus on improving graduate language skills so that students can more freely focus on content and conceptual learning in their graduate classes.