Intensive English Program (IEP)

The Intensive English Program (IEP) is for all who wish to improve their English language skills for personal, professional, or academic reasons.

Description

  • Intensive program – 20 hours of instruction per week
  • Six levels: intro through advanced. All our levels are referenced to the CEFR standards
  • All skills: speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation
  • Extra-intensive program in summer – 26 hours per week

Dates & Fees

Class Schedule

IEP students attend classes 20 hours or more per week. Classes are every day, usually from morning through mid-afternoon.

Students at the high intermediate level (level 4) and higher may also enroll in extra optional classes in the late afternoon.

Many IEP students follow a schedule similar to these:

  • Monday to Friday, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM and Monday to Thursday, 1:00 PM to 3:45 PM

Course Descriptions

NOTE: Your course level will be determined based on the DuoLingo English placement test score submitted at the time of application.

Core Courses
LEVEL Intro (Enrollment Dependent, may not be offered every semester.)

This course is designed to develop basic English language reading, writing, and vocabulary skills for students who have not had prior experience with the English language. Students learn to name and form all letters and numbers, to write the most common words with correct spelling and to follow the rules of capitalization and punctuation. Students also develop reading strategies including recognizing common sight words, decoding all alphabet sounds, and reading and responding appropriately to words and sentences. Prerequisite:  Permission of the department.

This course is designed to help novice speakers of English to develop grammar concepts. Students learn to recognize basic parts of speech and construct simple sentences using present and present progressive tenses. They also learn to correctly use subject pronouns, object pronouns, and some adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and modals. Prerequisite:  Permission of the department.

This course is designed to develop basic English language listening and speaking skills for students who have not had prior experience with the English language. To develop these skills students engage in a variety of practical activities such as role-plays, individual, and pair work. Students learn to understand and respond to simple classroom instructions, common greetings, introductions, comments about the weather or the time, daily interests, and activities. Additionally, they practice differentiating the basic sentence types using rising intonation for yes and no questions. Prerequisite: Permission of the department.

LEVEL 1 (Enrollment Dependent, may not be offered every semester)

This course is designed to develop beginning English language skills, focusing on vocabulary, reading, and writing. Students learn to produce affirmative and negative statements and questions using the simple present, simple past, present progressive, and future tenses. Students spell accurately, write simple sentences using correct word order, express several ideas on a topic within a paragraph, and learn general and academic vocabulary to facilitate communication. Students develop reading strategies including guessing meaning from context and reading for specific information in order to read short texts for main ideas and details.

This course is designed to help beginning-level speakers of English develop grammar concepts. Students learn to produce affirmative and negative statements and questions using the simple present, simple past, present progressive, and future tenses. They also learn to correctly use count and non-count nouns, quantifiers, and articles in simple cases. They utilize adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and models.

This course is designed to help beginning English language learners develop listening and speaking skills through a variety of practical listening and speaking activities, including role-plays, individual and group presentations, small discussions, and pair work. Students learn to understand and answer questions from their instructor and classmates and to identify the main ideas and details in listening activities. Students practice speaking and listening skills while increasing their knowledge of U.S. life.

LEVEL 2

This course is designed to help low-intermediate-level English learners improve their vocabulary, reading, and writing skills. Students learn and practice simple and progressive tenses, adjective forms, conditional forms, and modal verbs with increasing accuracy. Students increase their vocabulary to communicate about themselves, their lives in the U.S., and other practical topics. Students write correct simple and complex sentences. Students also practice writing multiple styles of well-organized paragraphs using the writing process. Students also read short articles and other texts for comprehension to develop their reading skills and improve their skills as independent learners.

This course is designed to help high-beginning to low-intermediate level speakers of English enhance their knowledge of grammar concepts. Students learn and practice simple and progressive tenses, adjective forms, conditional forms, and modal verbs with increasing accuracy. They also correctly interpret and use pronouns, quantifiers, and an increasing variety of modals, gerunds, and infinities.

This course is designed to help high-beginning English learners develop listening and speaking strategies to converse with their instructor, classmates, and native speakers of English in the community. Students increase their vocabulary, participate in group work in English, and give short presentations on familiar topics. Students also increase their knowledge of cultural norms through a variety of real-life experiences in U.S. culture. Students practice listening and speaking in role plays, conversations, projects, group work, and other interactive activities.

LEVEL 3

This course is designed to help high-intermediate level students enhance their reading, writing and vocabulary skills for both academic and every-day situations. Students improve their reading skills for skimming, scanning, reading for details, inferring and guessing meaning from context in order to read texts on familiar and unfamiliar topics. Students use the writing process to write a variety of well-organized and cohesive paragraphs and essays on familiar and unfamiliar topics. By the end of the semester, students write essays on a variety of familiar topics. In addition, students increase their productive and receptive vocabulary in order to communicate about academic and general topics in English.

This course is designed to help low intermediate level English learners enhance their grammar skills for both academic and everyday situations.  Through a variety of classroom, laboratory and outside-of-class activities, students practice and use intermediate grammatical structures such as count and noncount nouns, determiners, comparative and superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs, phrasal verbs, past and future tenses with time clauses, perfect tenses, gerunds and infinitives, modals and passive voice.

This course is designed to increase low intermediate level English learners’ listening and speaking skills. Students give longer group and individual presentations on familiar and unfamiliar topics and work in groups to negotiate and come to consensus.  Students also practice understanding a variety of authentic listening texts and develop their ability to make inferences while listening. Students recognize core cultural values and compare and contrast their home country’s culture to those of other countries. Classroom activities include role-plays, dialogues, debates, and discussion of real-life scenarios.