Overview

The program consists of 20 hours per week of classroom instruction in the basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing. IEP focuses especially on preparing students for undergraduate college study in the United States, so a variety of textbooks, computer and other audio and visual technologies are integrated into our curriculum. 

There are six levels in the IEP. Students take placement assessments to determine their level. Students who successfully complete Levels 5 and 6 and then enroll at EMU for an undergraduate degree may receive 15 semester hours of credit. Students in our most advanced levels may also consider studying part-time at IEP and part-time at EMU’s undergraduate level in our Step Up program.

Course Descriptions

Listening  & Speaking 

In this class, students will focus on developing their listening comprehension and speaking comprehensibility in an academic setting. Students will listen and respond to authentic English content (lectures, films, etc.), give presentations, participate in small and large group discussions, and engage in a variety of other listening and speaking tasks.

Reading, Vocabulary, & Spelling

In this class, students will focus on developing their reading comprehension ability. Students will read and respond to a variety of texts depending on their level (short readings, novels, articles, non-fiction books, etc.), practice reading out loud, journal, learn new authentic English vocabulary, practice spelling, and perform other reading comprehension tasks.

Writing & Grammar

In this class, students will focus on developing their writing ability. Students will work their way from writing sentences and paragraphs (Levels 1-3) to writing multi-paragraph academic essays (Levels 4-6). Students will learn the expectations of college writing in the United States, practice various genres of writing, and study key grammatical forms of English to improve their own writing clarity.

Integrated Skills & Pronunciation

In this class, students will focus on developing their reading, writing, listening, and speaking in English, practicing a variety of academic tasks to use these skills in integrated ways. This class will also focus specifically on the mechanics of English pronunciation (vowel and consonant sounds, word stress, intonation, thought groups, etc.) to help students become more comprehensible in their speaking and more knowledgeable of the different variations of English pronunciation.