About IEI

Where is the IEI?

The Intensive English Institute is located on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Urbana-Champaign is a small, safe college town of 100,000 people. The IEI is 210 km south of Chicago, 270 km northeast of St. Louis, Missouri, and 200 km west of Indianapolis, Indiana. Please see map for exact driving directions.

The Intensive English Institute Programs:

The Intensive English Institute offers three types of programs:
  • The Intensive English Program teaches general academic English and is designed for individuals who want to improve their English for personal or professional reasons. This includes students who want to improve their English so they can enter a US university.
  • Our Special Contract Programs are arranged by universities, businesses or educational agencies for groups of students or professionals.
  • Our Legal English Program is a short preparatory course for students with an interest in law who will be enrolling in a US law school or LLM program.

You can get a brief overview on these programs below:

Intensive English Program

Our Intensive English Program offers 20 hours per week of in-class instruction in two fifteen-week sessions. Students may begin their study in August or January. An eight-week summer session is also available from June to August. Highlights of our current program include:

  • 5 levels of instruction from basic to advanced.
  • Small classes with 12-15 students on average.
  • Core classes that emphasize reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.
  • Elective courses that include Film and Fiction, Current Events, Advertising and Consumer Behavior, Business English, Pronunciation and Conversation.
  • TOEFL Preparation course which helps students improve their test taking skills for the computer-based TOEFL.

In our Conversation Partner Program, students meet with an American partner to practice English outside of class.

Our International Student Adviser can answer questions about applying to American universities, life on campus, immigration issues, etc.

Our Social Coordinator organizes outside-of-class activities for all IEI students such as the Welcome Picnic, a trip to Turkey Run State Park where students can hike, canoe and ride horses, and a trip to Chicago.

Students also do activities outside of class with their classmates that are organized by their teachers such as going out to lunch or dinner, playing sports, participating in cultural activities like carving pumpkins on Halloween and much more etc.

Learn more about the program...

Special Contract Programs

The IEI special contract programs are designed for university and other groups of students, teachers, scholars, and professionals with specific needs. Programs typically run for three to four weeks, for eight weeks, or for an entire academic semester. Some sample programs that we have provided for groups in the past are:
  • conversation and culture
  • business communication
  • teacher training and development
  • academic English for specific fields of study

The IEI can also design customized programs for the needs of other special groups.

Learn more ...

Legal English Program

The Legal English Program is a three-week certificate program designed for non-native speakers of English who have been admitted to an LLM program or as a Law School visiting scholar. This program offers 75 hours of instruction over three weeks.
  • Sixty-three hours of that time will be spent developing students’ proficiency in the English language, vocabulary, and academic skills required to succeed in an American law school.
  • 12 hours of instruction are designed to familiarize students with the fundamentals of the United States legal system and the study of law in the U.S.

Learn more...