For Japanese students who are accustomed to accepting relatively uncritically the writings of others and who think there is only one correct answer for questions on any given examination, it appears that there are not a few students who feel irritated when an instructor does not produce an immediate answer. Patience is essential both for students and instructors to battle with this process, especially when incoming students have limited English language proficiency. The student has to acquire such English proficiency skills and basic academic skills as how to read objectively and critically the writings of others, how, similarly, to listen to the opinions of others with ability and competence, how to articulate and write succinctly, how to argue by making use of references and library sources, etc. With these tools, methods and knowledge, the students will learn to compile arguments pro and con and to assert their opinions. 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.