http://www.esubulletin.com

"Intensive English Program" IEP lacks accreditation for paying students Posted on 03 February 2011. Tags: Ayumi Kawaski, Intensive English Program, International Students, Laura Tholen, Roy Briggeman, Yang Hui When international students study in America, they are expected to be able to pass English exams to show that they are knowledgeable enough of the language to attend classes taught in English. But students who don’t meet the requirements must take classes through the ESU Intensive English Program – classes that students don’t currently receive academic credit for, despite paying $6,600 for all four classes at once, according to the Office of International Education’s website. Students must take those classes before moving on to academic classes, but there are several ways to be exempt from taking part in the program which includes passing one of two English proficiency exams available, being from a country that speaks English as its native language or having a degree from an English speaking country. “It is not fair because I want to graduate as soon as possible, but I took IEP classes last semester and I couldn’t receive any credit, so I can’t graduate as soon as (what would have been) possible,” said Ayumi Kawaski, freshman communications major from Japan. If students are in four IEP classes, they are considered full time students and are not allowed to take other academic classes. If they are in three IEP classes, one additional academic class is allowed, and so forth. If they are in full time IEP classes, then they have class 20 hours per week, as every class meets every day, said Roy Briggeman, assistant director of the Intensive English Program. “(The program) is really good,” said Yang Hui, junior elementary education major from China. “Our instructors are very professional and they try their best to help us to improve our English. And they know our advantages and disadvantages about English.” But Hui said that since international students in IEP classes spend so much time and energy on completing their assignments, they should receive credit for the courses. Briggeman said that academic credit for IEP courses should be available within the next two years, as the program is currently in the process of accreditation. “As a program, we think that credit for classes is something that the university needs to look at, and I think they are. We are working on becoming accredited and we think that maybe when the IEP becomes accredited, perhaps then we can peruse the idea of having some credit for classes,” Briggeman said. Although some international students feel that the program is unfair, due to the strict attendance requirements, constant writing assignments and the fact that American students are allowed to take a foreign language and receive credit for it, they also feel that it helps them progress quite a bit as English speakers. “Like, in writing class, we have assignments every day, such as how to write a newsletter…although it is difficult, it is very helpful,” Hui said. Some ESU students thought the extra classes in English would be helpful to international students. “International students don’t know English quite as well (as native speakers) and in order to progress, they need to take more English classes… the opposite goes for Americans learning foreign languages because they can choose whether or not to continue their studies in that foreign language, whereas the international students, who are already here, clearly have chosen to take classes in America in English, and so they need to further that skill,” said Laura Tholen, freshman biochemistry and molecular biology major. By Samantha Jones Send article as PDF to PDF Posted in Coverage, NewsComments (0) Letter to the Editor: Jan. 27, 2011 Posted on 27 January 2011. Tags: class credit, English placement, IEP tests, Intensive English Program When international students come to ESU, they need to have the English placement tests if they have no any certificates in English. If they failed in IEP tests, they should take IEP classes, which is short for Intensive English Program and focuses on improving the English of English learners. To our surprise, we can’t receive any credit for IEP classes. Compared to IEP students, American students can receive credits when they learn second languages. For instance, when they take Spanish or French, they will receive five credits. As a result, we think it’s unfair to IEP students and we think that IEP students should receive credits for IEP classes. Before international students enroll, they need to pay money for IEP classes. For example, Denghao, who has four IEP classes this semester, paid three thousand and three hundred dollars for these classes. Although he paid so much money and had difficult classes, he still can’t receive credit for IEP classes. That really makes him feel frustrated. There is another unfair situation for IEP students who can’t receive credit for classes. Ai Date, who is an exchange student in ESU, will just stay here for one year. Because she has to take some IEP classes, she doesn’t have enough time to take academic classes. But she should bring credits as many as she can to her Japan collage after one year. There are fierce competitions in Japan so Ai feels stressed when she can’t receive credit for IEP classes. Similarly, Ayumi has the same opinion. She wants to get a bachelor degree in ESU. As usual, it takes American students four years to graduate from ESU. But international students who enter this university at 18 years old and take some IEP classes would graduate when they are older than 22. Ayumi thought that if IEP students can’t receive credit for classes, it prevents them from advancing to society early as workers. IEP students have a busy day. Nobu, who has four IEP classes, has a very busy day. “It takes me four hours to take IEP classes every day. In addition, I have read a difficult text book in my reading class, taken a lot of tests and tutoring for my structure class, written a lot of essays in my writing class and had a presentation and three reaction reports in my speaking class.” Because he should finish lots of assignments, he said, “I have studied a lot of things in IEP classes.” After finishing lots of tasks in IEP classes, each student gains a lot. Based on this argument, we want to list what IEP students have done in advanced writing class. Our writing instructor gives us some assignments every day. In his class, we have learned how to make our essays formats more professional, including how to change them into APA/MLA formats. In addition, we have learned how to plan a big project, such as how to work with your teammates and publish prefect newsletters. “The newsletters that we have made have given much useful information to international students,” said Dahao Yu. Some reactions of IEP students reflect that IEP classes can improve our English with many kinds of activities. Some of the tasks took IEP students much more time than homework in our academic classes. Above all, we think that IEP students endeavored to learn English in IEP classes, and most of them made big progress in improving their English. They should receive credit for classes, because it is effective to encourage them to study English better and make them feel fair. © 2010 ESU Bulletin