Our center manages the planning and implementation an English curriculum that intensively builds students’ English proficiency with the goal of developing highly specialized professionals and international researchers.
Curriculum
At Tohoku University, which is a research university, English is used as a “working language” regardless of the faculty. Therefore, students at our university will have the opportunity to incorporate knowledge through English and to think about, present, and write in English while acquiring knowledge in their specialized fields. First and second year English classes as university-wide educational subjects are provided to lay the foundation for academic English known as “English for General Academic Purposes.”
First year students are required to take four English classes, English I-A, English I-B, English II-A, English II-B. Each class has two objectives. Each objective contains two core skills. Second year students in English III classes make presentations by using the core skills they learned during their first year.
English I-A: Academic Reading and Vocabulary
1. Improve reading and vocabulary-building skills
1) Word Parts
2) Synonym Vocabulary
2. Recognize the text’s main idea, key information, and gist
3) Skimming and Scanning
4) Paraphrasing and Summarizing
English I-B: Academic Listening and Speaking
1. Take and discuss notes
5) Note-Taking While Listening
6) Orally Summarizing from Notes
2. Use common spoken academic expressions
7) Idiomatic Language
8) Interrogatives and Stating Opinions
English II-A: Integrated Academic Reading and Writing
1. Identify the text’s organization and logic
9) Connotative and Denotative Meanings
10) Implications and Inferences
2. Construct an academic paragraph
11) Collocations
12) Paragraph Writing
English II-B: Integrated Academic Listening and Speaking
1. Understand a speaker’s intent
13) Indirect Language
14) Tone of Voice
2. Discuss various topics
15) Fluency and Pronunciation
16) Discussion Strategies
English III: Integrated Academic Presentation
1. Preparing, creating, and giving an academic presentation
1) Presentation Preparation
2) Presentation Strategies
2. Identifying and asking about key information from an academic presentation
3) Listening Critically
4) Questions & Answers
