Curriculum

Overview of the IEP. The IEP is a two-year English language learning program for freshmen and sophomore students of the English Department. It is organized into semester-length integrated English courses at 3 levels, IE I, II, III. The 3 main courses include combined skills (IE Core), listening (IE Active Listening), and Writing (IE Writing). Each course meets weekly over a 15-week semester. The final semester of the IEP consists of a student-selected seminar (IE Seminar) on a specialized area of content. Oral English I and II are not classes offered by the English Department, but ones that we coordinate.

The IE Core course integrates the four skills or speaking, listening, reading, and writing. All three courses, IE Core, IE Writing, and IE Active Listening, share themes and associated vocabulary. There are currently 320 freshmen and an almost equal number of sophomores in the program. The IE courses are taught by approximately 3 full-time faculty, 38 adjunct or part-time native speakers, and 10 adjunct Japanese teachers. At the end of each semester, students evaluate their individual IE courses and teachers.

Streaming. Students are “streamed” into classes based on their English ability. They were formerly tested using the TOEFL ITP, but the TOEIC is now used. Students are placed in levels I, II, or III of the program based on their test scores.

Changing IE levels. In the Spring semester, a few students in your class may feel that they have been placed at a level too difficult, or too easy, for them. They are given the opportunity to change levels. If they wish to go down a level, they may do so without special authorization by the IE Coordinators. However, if they wish to go up a level the Core teacher should agree with the decision. Disputes are to be resolved by the IE Program coordinators through interviews conducted with the students in question. Teachers are requested to remind students that a level change process is not complete unless they hear from Kyomuka (the Student Center) or the IEP Committee as to what to do next.

We ask Core teachers to contact the IEP coordinators within the first two weeks of classes and we will evaluate whether the students identified as wishing to change levels should be moved. Core teachers will be given a transfer form to record the students’ information [although this process was suspended during the pandemic].