As explained before, the ELP should be considered as a language program integrated into the education of the college of liberal arts. Students often express their desire to have more training in conversational English. As I said before, the aforementioned goals of our language program are different from the goals of English conversation schools, but, of course, in discussion classes students are trained in communicative and presentation skills in academic contexts. In light of the fact that many students are able to successfully meet the requirements of universities in English speaking countries, it can be said that their latent ability for conversing in English is fully developed under pressure of necessity, suggesting that the learning process of the ELP provides a firm basis for this development. The present English Language Program at ICU puts emphasis on academic writing.
Writing is the area which is most neglected in English education in Japanese secondary schools.
Training in freshman year begins with how to generate ideas on paper without worrying too much about correct grammar. Students learn how to organize the proper writing of short essays in English, such as how to create good thesis statements, topic sentences for paragraphing, how to effectively use transitional markers, and how to formulate good conclusions. When students proceed to their sophomore year, they are required to write longer documented academic essays in the course called Theme Writing. They also learn how to properly cite information gleaned from books, journals and other library and internet sources and how to form a bibliography of such sources. An abstract is also required.