The Intensive English Communication Program (IECP) of the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) is one of the best English programs in the United States. It is certainly true that students in the IECP not only improve their English extremely fast but also feel happy and excited when they come to classes. There are many factors leading to this success; however, faculty members and a comprehensive curriculum are two main game-changers for this program.
The Grammar Writing Skill 140 class (GWS 140) is the best evidence for this fact. The GWS 140 teacher – Jackie who is always full of energy brings to her student a huge number of interesting activities in class. Moreover, grammar information that seems to be boring for most of people is turned into the most interesting knowledge for her student. As Trieu (2019) states, Henry feels happy and excited when he learns new verb tenses and grammar structures. He tends to come to class early and ardently takes part in every activity. Based on this photo, Trieu (2019) argues that GWS 140 is Henry’s favorite class.
Another strong evidence for the success of the IECP which is shown in Trieu (2019) study is that the curriculum of every class is built by a thoughtful way. For example, students in the IECP prepared very well and wrote many drafts before doing every big assignment. Specifically, to have the final draft of Ironically Academic Autobiography (IAA) in GWS 140, students are guided to do step 1, step 2, and step 3. Each step is a new better draft. It is clear that those steps are extremely helpful for students. In the step 2 of IAA in GWS 140, Henry wrote about his childhood funny story. It is that when he was a kid, his mother told me that police officers who always there to help everyone are good guys. That is the reason why he called them to help him solve his math homework in third grade. Until now, everyone in his family still tell this funny story and laugh at him when family members gather.
IECP writing classes are extremely amazing because of what students write in their paper. No matter it is an academic or non-academic paper, the information included is very interesting. For example, in GWS 140 class, students write about hilarious stories and favorite toys in their IAA. According to Alanzi (2019), he states that one of the funniest stories in GWS 140 class is Henry’s story. In 8th grade, Henry had to read an article in English on the stage of his class. While he was reading, he mispronounced some words. The problem is that what he said was turned out to swear words and he kept saying that until his teacher told him to stop. It, however, is not the worst part of the story. Unfortunately, his classmates recorded a video and posted on YouTube. After this accident, Henry became famous among his school.
It is noteworthy to mention that language learning is a journey taking time and effort. Many language learners spent from five to ten years influencing a new language. Some of them, as a multilingual, still keep practicing this language everyday after that long learning time. As Ho (2019) said, “I have been speaking English for 10 years, but I think it is not enough. Sometimes, because of mispronouncing, my American friends misunderstand what I try to say. Moreover, using English to make a friend is my biggest challenge when I first came to the U.S. That is the reason why I still keep learning English until now”. It seems that life for multilinguals is not easy. They speak their mother tongue to communicate with family and friends. They also use foreign languages for working and integrate into the world. If someone want to be a multilingual in the future for any reasons, in order to have a best preparation for their language learning journey, they should consider the Intensive English Communication Program (IECP) of the Pennsylvania State University (PSU) – the best intensive English programs in the United States.
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