Intensive English Courses

Our Program has:

  • IEP has five (5) levels of instruction (beginner to advanced), each completed in one semester.
  • Fall and Spring semesters are 16 weeks, divided into two 8-week terms (A and B). * about 235 hours of instruction
  • Students can start in Term A or Term B during fall and spring semesters.
  • Summer semesters are 12 weeks with has limited start options.
  • Note: UIC Tutorium only runs levels 2-5 during the summer session.
  • Full-time students (18+ hrs/week in-person) receive an I-20 from UIC’s Office of International Services (OIS).
  • There are about 12 students in an average class.
    • Note: This number is often lower, but it can increase to around 20 students (especially for our intermediate level classes)
  • There are about 100 students in an average session.

Course Meeting Times

Fall and Spring

All Levels – Monday through Thursday,  8:30 a.m. – 3:15 p.m. CDT

  • 18 hours of instruction per week
  • Reading and writing skills are taught in a.m. classes.
  • Listening and speaking skills are taught in p.m. classes.

Summer

Levels 1-4 – Monday through Friday,  8:30 a.m. – 3:00   p.m. CDT

Level 5 – Monday through Thursday,  8:30 a.m. –  3:30 p.m. CDT

All levels:

  • 24 – 25 hours of instruction per week
  • Reading and writing skills are taught in a.m. classes.
  • Listening and speaking skills are taught in p.m. classes.

Semester Length

Fall – 16 weeks

  • 14 weeks of instruction with a week break at midterm and an extra week off during winter break.

Spring – 16 weeks

  • 14 weeks of instruction with a week break at midterm, a week break for UIC Spring Break, and a week off between Spring and Summer semester.

Summer – 12 weeks

  • 10 weeks of instruction with a 2-week break between Summer and Fall

Course Levels

All new students at our Intensive English Program take comprehensive placement exams that test spoken English and written English skills before the first week of class. This determines their Reading/Writing and Listening/Speaking levels.

Our Intensive English Program levels are:

  • Level 1: High Beginning
  • Level 2: Low intermediate
  • Level 3: High Intermediate
  • Level 4: Advanced
  • Level 5: Advanced Professional Skills

A student completes one level per semester. Courses may be repeated once if the student is unable to reach the learning outcomes of the first semester in the course.

Course Descriptions