The American Language Program offers a truly student-centered curriculum, class structure, and pedagogical approach. Rather than place students into a rigid level system, we create classes and adapt our curriculum around the students each and every academic term. Each term our classes and distribution of students can look entirely different. This allows us to respond directly to our students’ unique needs every semester.

Students are placed into foundation classes if their English skills are limited. These classes emphasize vocabulary expansion, grammar analysis, and general English skills. Students focus on building understanding in listening and speaking and accuracy in speaking and writing.

Students are placed in intermediate classes if they can communicate with English speakers in most situations, but their fluency and control are still weak. Intermediate classes begin to emphasize English for academic purposes.

Students are placed in advanced classes if they are nearly ready to begin academic study or participate with confidence in professional settings. Advanced classes familiarize students with organizing, paraphrasing, summarizing, and synthesizing academic English in both spoken and written forms. The advanced classes are often referred to as Capstone courses and can be taken repeatedly up to a full calendar year to allow students to gain admission in an academic program.

Typical Class Schedule 

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 

9:00 AM - 1:35 PM