IELP Class List

Scroll down for a complete listing of IELP course numbers, titles, and descriptions by level. Use CTRL+F to search for a specific course.

If you would like to take an IELP class, we'll get you registered! Just email us at IELP (esl@pdx.edu).

Note that a mandatory Learning Center fee will be assessed in addition to tuition when registering for one or more IELP courses. This fee gives you up to eight sessions with a conversation partner and nine sessions with a tutor. For more details, see our website.

Level 5

Course Number	Course Title	Credits	Description
IELP 156	Public Speaking for Non-Native Speakers of English	4	Students learn techniques for developing and delivering both impromptu and prepared speeches. Emphasis will be given to developing strategies to reduce nervousness, organize ideas, produce grammatically accurate language and improve pronunciation and overall oral quality.
IELP 155	Discussion Skills for Non-Native Speakers of English	4	Focus on communication skills within the context of small group settings. Development of effective group collaboration and communication strategies including oral expression, active listening, discussion roles, and cultural competency. Students practice skills through participation in group projects.
IELP 154	Advanced Academic Reading	4	Students expand ability to efficiently and effectively read academic texts. Students lead group discussions on academic articles and continue building on academic vocabulary. Summary and response writing focuses on using critical thinking skills. Students should have a strong foundation in academic reading in order to enroll in the course.
IELP 153	Independent Research Writing	4	Students write a research paper based on a topic of their choosing. Focus on critical thinking skills, finding appropriate sources through library and internet searches, and synthesis of ideas from sources into a well developed, clearly organized and accurately documented paper. Students taking the course should have experience writing basic source-based essays with a thesis and documentation.
IELP 152	Grammar & Editing for Academic Writing	4	Students identify and integrate the grammatical structures that can cause difficulty in writing for non-native speakers. These structures include conditionals, prepositions, and subordination, among others. Students will focus on using grammar effectively in self-editing of academic writing. Students must have a strong foundation in English grammar in order to enroll in this course.

Level 4

IELP 147	Understanding Academic Lectures	4	Students prepare for the demands of understanding academic lectures in university contexts. Focus in on developing skills and strategies to increase effective lecture listening, note-taking, and retrieval and application of information.
IELP 144	Academic Reading for Non-Native Speakers of English	4	Students improve ability to read academic texts quickly and effectively. Concepts taught include considering the author’s point of view and purpose in understanding a reading, developing strategies for answering essay questions under time constraints and learning how to paraphrase, summarize and respond to readings. Students will also build their academic vocabulary during the term. Students should have a basic foundation in academic reading in order to enroll in the course.
IELP 143	Guided Research Writing	4	Students produce academic research papers using sources provided by the instructor. Skills include developing ideas for writing, using transitional elements, paraphrasing and documenting sources, and developing effective thesis statements, introductions and conclusions. Analysis and synthesis of information from sources for use in writing. Students must have a basic foundation in academic writing in order to enroll in this course.
IELP 142	Advanced English Grammar	4	Focus on grammar concepts that are essential for effective academic writing. Students will apply these concepts in written activities and begin to learn self-editing techniques. Students should have a basic foundation in English grammar including the English verb tense system and simple, compound and complex sentence structures.

Level 3

IELP 136	Speaking/Listening Level 3	4	Emphasis on taking organized notes using symbols and abbreviations, understanding main ideas and examples, and identifying lecture cues from academic lectures. Improve skills needed for focused small group discussions, impromptu speaking, and individual and group presentations using information gathered from interviews.
IELP 134	Reading Level 3	4	Focus on developing critical reading skills in expanded works of fiction and non-fiction; introduction to rhetorical patterns, distinguishing fact from opinion, determining author’s purpose, paraphrasing and summarizing points, and identifying elements of fiction. Expansion and use of academic vocabulary.
IELP 131	Grammar/Writing Level 3	8	Introduction to cause/effect and argumentation as rhetorical styles; practice narrowing a topic, developing more effective introductions and conclusions; use of transitions to subordinate/coordinate ideas. Emphasis on essay writing. Expanded use of gerunds and infinitives, modal auxiliaries, and adverbial clauses. Introduction to past perfect and future perfect tenses, subordinate clauses, parallel structure, and relative clauses.

Levels 1 and 2 - Mixed Level Classes

IELP 116/126	Speaking/Listening Levels 1 and 2	4	Emphasis is on developing confidence, comprehensibility, and skills in basic social interactions, including participating in conversations, asking for information, and providing personal information. Practice questions, statements, and negatives in present, past, and future tenses; identify common reductions, stress, and intonation patterns; use vocabulary related to academic and everyday life; give narrative and descriptive individual presentations. Identify meaningful information from short lectures and conversations; practice with question forms in present, past, future, and present perfect tenses; conduct interviews; plan and deliver short oral presentations. Continued improvement of pronunciation skills, including stress, intonation, and reductions.
IELP 114/124	Reading Levels 1 and 2	4	Focus on basic reading skills, as well as introduction to skimming and scanning, differentiating main ideas from supporting details and examples, identifying common prefixes and suffixes, discerning meaning from context, and matching pronouns to their referents. Dictionary exercises used to practice alphabetical order, syllabification, and word stress. Continued emphasis on building vocabulary and honing skills through reading short, adapted materials. Focus, in both fiction and non-fiction texts, on improving comprehension skills; locating and understanding main ideas, supporting details, and signal words; inferring meaning; and increasing reading speed. Improve dictionary skills and expand academic vocabulary knowledge including meaning, parts of speech, affixes, and word forms.
IELP 111/121	Grammar/Writing Levels 1 and 2	8	Focus on sentence structure and developing basic single paragraphs (descriptive and narrative rhetorical styles) with topic, supporting, and concluding sentences. Introduction to compound and complex sentences. A continued focus on simple present and past verbs, and an introduction to form, meaning, and use of progressive and future tense, including statement and question forms; contractions; time expressions; modals; count/noncount nouns; pronouns; adjective and noun complements; demonstratives; and prepositions. Focus on paragraph development and introduction to process, comparison/contrast, and classification writing as rhetorical styles; use of logical connectors; outlining ideas for essay organization; and formatting rules. Emphasis on expanding single paragraph essays into longer essays. Expanded utilization of modal auxiliaries and introduction to present perfect tense, gerunds and infinitives, passive voice, real conditional, comparative and superlative adjectives, and adverbs.

PEP and Level 1 - Mixed Level Classes

IELP 106/116	Speaking/Listening PEP and Level 1	4	An introduction to basic listening and speaking skills. Practice with listening to conversations and interviews; asking/answering questions; making positive and negative statements in the present tenses; describing people, places, things and activities; giving personal information, expressing wants, needs and likes. Emphasis is on pronunciation and understanding and being understood in simple conversational situations. Emphasis is on developing confidence, comprehensibility, and skills in basic social interactions, including participating in conversations, asking for information, and providing personal information. Practice questions, statements, and negatives in present, past, and future tenses; identify common reductions, stress, and intonation patterns; use vocabulary related to academic and everyday life; give narrative and descriptive individual presentations.
IELP 104/114	Reading PEP and Level 1	4	An introduction to basic reading skills including phonics, basic comprehension, fluency, sequence, word analysis; finding the topic. Introduction to basic dictionary skills and extensive reading. Emphasis on building vocabulary and decoding strategies to aid in fluency and reading for basic understanding. Focus on basic reading skills, as well as introduction to skimming and scanning, differentiating main ideas from supporting details and examples, identifying common prefixes and suffixes, discerning meaning from context, and matching pronouns to their referents. Dictionary exercises used to practice alphabetical order, syllabification, and word stress. Continued emphasis on building vocabulary and honing skills through reading short, adapted materials.
IELP 101/111	Grammar/Writing PEP and Level 1	8	An introduction to form, meaning and use of simple present and past verb tenses; conjunctions; subject, object, possessive, and demonstrative pronouns. Students will learn to identify parts of speech and sentences; question/answer formation; write beginning level paragraphs; understand and use the basic rules for capitalization, punctuation and spelling; practice good penmanship. Focus on sentence structure and developing basic single paragraphs (descriptive and narrative rhetorical styles) with topic, supporting, and concluding sentences. Introduction to compound and complex sentences. A continued focus on simple present and past verbs, and an introduction to form, meaning, and use of progressive and future tense, including statement and question forms; contractions; time expressions; modals; count/noncount nouns; pronouns; adjective and noun complements; demonstratives; and prepositions.

Pathway Program Seminars

IELP 171	Pathways Introduction Seminar	2	Supports students’ personal growth and academic transition from ESL course work to university course work. Students learn about university resources, policies, procedures, and expectations governing their degree study. Students engage in individualized academic activities and planning by making informed decisions and creating a one-year academic plan. Prerequisite: (IELP 131, IELP 134, and IELP 136) or placement into IELP 142, IELP 143, IELP 144, IELP 147 or higher.
IELP 172	Pathways Intermediate Seminar	2	Supports students in level 5 IELP classes as they take their first academic courses at PSU. The course focuses on transferring academic skills used in language-learning classrooms to content-specific academic classrooms. The work that students are doing in their IELP and PSU courses are the basis of most classroom activities. Students evaluate and update their academic plans in consultation with their academic advisor in their major, strengthening their connection to their academic departments. Prerequisites: IELP 142, IELP 143, IELP 144, IELP 147, and IELP 171.
IELP 173	Pathways Final Seminar	2	Concludes students’ preparation for full-time academic study in their next term. The focus of this course is academic literacy and goal development. Students link academic course work, co-curricular and extra-curricular opportunities, and career development as part of independently directing their academic planning. Prerequisites: IELP 142, IELP 143, IELP 144, IELP 147, and IELP 171.

Classes for Graduate Students

IELP 457

Writing Workshop for Multilingual Graduate Students

The Graduate Writing Workshop is a 2-credit course designed to support multilingual graduate students with their existing writing projects. Students should have an existing writing project or regular written assignments that they wish to receive guidance on. Through seminar-style discussions and peer workshops, students will develop a critical awareness of their own writing needs and the conventions of American academic writing. Prerequisite: Graduate-student standing.

Required First Term Class

IELP 170

American Culture and Academic Life (ACAL)

This is a course that is required of all students their first term of study in the IELP. It provides students with academic and cultural information needed to adjust smoothly and quickly to life in the IELP and at PSU and Portland. In this course, students will learn to access the information and resources they need in order to be safe, healthy, culturally adjusted, academically successful, and maintain their immigration status. Students will also build useful vocabulary and have opportunities to practice speaking, listening to guest speakers, reading and writing.