PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 25, No. 21, May 18, 2006

Intensive English Institute teaches more than English

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@uiuc.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Bridging the linguistic divide Susan Gonzo (left), director of the Intensive English Institute, talks with Juan Feng (center), an associate professor of engineering at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and Isabel Wong, director of the Office of Institutional and Faculty International Collaboration, at a May 10 reception at the Foreign Languages Building. Feng and scholars from other Chinese universities were honored for completing a teaching development program sponsored by IEI, IFIC and the Chinese Scholarship Commission that instructs scholars how to teach the subject matter of their disciplines in English.

Tucked away in a house on west Nevada Street in Urbana, the Intensive English Institute holds the key to the future for those who want to improve their English skills.

Begun in 1967, the institute provides instructional programs for students who want to improve their English for personal or professional reasons or before they apply to U.S. universities. The institute also offers Special Contract Programs, customized programs for educational institutions or agencies or in cooperation with UI academic units for groups of students or professionals with specific learning goals. For example, short-term language and cultural programs that often take place during the summer session and programs like the Legal English Program, a preparatory course for people who plan to enroll in the UI’s master’s law program, and the joint program with Seoul National University and the department of urban and regional Planning.

The Intensive English Institute and the Office of Institutional and Faculty International Collaboration also have a partnership with the Chinese Scholarship Commission that brings junior faculty from Chinese universities to the Urbana campus for a one-semester intensive course that helps them teach the core subject matter of their disciplines in English. Participating faculty members had a disciplinary home in a cooperating school or department at the UI.

During the three-year contract of the program, which recently ended, “we have worked with more than 150 faculty members from China who have gone back to their home institutions to continue their teaching and research, hopefully having established strong ties with UI faculty members,” said Susan Gonzo, IEI’s director.

Students get 20 hours of in-class instruction weekly in two 15-week sessions, beginning in August or January, or during an eight-week summer session. The programs comprise five proficiency levels with instruction in reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.

Class sizes average 12 to 15 students. Although the institute is on the UI’s Urbana campus, its students are not university students, unless they seek admission to degree programs at the UI.

Shih-chuan Lin, who has studied at the institute since June 2005 and plans to return to Taiwan soon, said he had two reasons for attending IEI. “One was to improve my English skills and apply to graduate schools in the U.S. The other was to go abroad to study; that was my dream.”

Of the institute’s 14 full-time faculty members, all of whom hold at least a master’s degree in teaching English as a second language, many speak at least one other language and have lived abroad.

Lin’s experience has been rewarding. “(When I first arrived,) I was in basic level. It means I had poor English. I couldn’t do anything here,” Lin said. “(But by the end of the spring 2006 semester,) I’d improved my English a lot. Right now I can do anything by myself such as booking hotels and flights, traveling and so on.”

With his improved English skills, Lin plans to earn a master’s in business administration or finance at a U.S. university.

The institute also sponsors leisure activities that help students learn about American culture and allow them to practice their English in social settings, such as trips to Chicago and Turkey Run State Park in Indiana, picnics and other outings.

The institute’s Conversation Partners program pairs a UI student with two IEI students to help them practice speaking English.

“The conversation partners commit to meeting an hour a week with their IEI students, but some of them go way beyond that,” Gonzo said. “Some of them end up taking students home to meet their families. In some cases, they get to be really good friends.”

Six hundred students have studied at the institute so far this year. They have come from Argentina, Colombia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

“Our population changes a lot depending on the economies of different countries and changes in U.S. immigration regulations,” Gonzo said. “After 9/11, the Middle Eastern population dropped, but it’s coming back, partly because there’s a big Saudi scholarship program. However, South American countries have financial problems, and many students can’t afford to come. Some of the Japanese students have been afraid to come to the U.S. because they read so much in the newspapers about crime.”

Like Lin, about one-third were preparing themselves for graduate or professional study at U.S. universities, but many simply wanted the cross-cultural experience of living in another country.

IEI students can choose to live in the UI residence halls, in apartments or with host families.

Instructor uses powerlifting to reach students

By Sharita Forrest, Assistant Editor
217-244-1072; slforres@uiuc.edu

Click photo to enlarge Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Pumping neurons too John Hudson, left, a visiting lecturer at the Intensive English Institute and doctoral candidate, and Haeryong Chung, an IEI student from South Korea, prepare to work out at the Intramural Physical Education Building. Hudson – who holds state records in the deadlift and the benchpress at 727 and 606 pounds, respectively – recruits international students to take up powerlifting as a means of learning English and experiencing American culture.

John Hudson understands the culture shock and isolation of being a visitor in a foreign country. Shortly after Hudson began teaching at Korea University in 1993, he found himself alone when his colleagues and students dispersed to celebrate a national holiday.

“A lot of international students here have that experience when their first Thanksgiving or Christmas break comes along. They don’t have any plans and all the Americans disappear – they go home. And that’s lonely,” Hudson said. “When I was in Korea, one of the things that was most important to me, especially in the early years, was people going out of their way to get me involved in their activities.”

Now a visiting lecturer and head of academic reading and writing at the Intensive English Institute and finishing his doctorate in writing studies, Hudson reaches out to international students by encouraging them to take up a sport that he enjoys: powerlifting.

Powerlifting is a strength sport consisting of three events: the squat, the bench press and the deadlift, where athletes raise the barbell until their legs and backs are straight, unlike regular weightlifting, where they must raise the bars above their heads. The maximum weights each participant lifts for each event are totaled to arrive at his or her final score.

Calling himself a “nerd” whose only sport was band, Hudson said he began wrestling his sophomore year of high school, eventually winning a scholarship to the University of North Dakota, where he wrestled for one season but stayed on to earn a bachelor’s degree in American studies and a master’s degree in English before heading to Illinois for doctoral work.

Hudson, who competed in his first powerlifting meet in 1985, did not participate for much of the 1990s while in Korea for six years. When he returned to Illinois to resume his doctoral work, he was eager to return to powerlifting, but was surprised that Illinois did not have a team, which led him to co-found Illini Powerlifting, a group that became a registered student organization, with three fellow enthusiasts who were undergraduate students.

Illinois co-chairman of the World Association of Bench Pressers and Dead Lifters, Hudson said he “recruits shamelessly,” and during the 2005-2006 academic year had 10 IEI students among Illini Powerlifting’s 30 or so members.

Like many of Hudson’s recruits, Jun-soo Kim and Daniel Cheng-feng Chen, students at the institute, had never tried lifting before they accepted Hudson’s invitations to participate in the group’s twice-a-week training sessions at the Intramural-Physical Education Building. Kim and Chen said that the sport is not popular in their home countries of Korea and Taiwan, respectively, but Kim was enticed by the challenge it posed, and Chen wanted to get in shape and try something new. Both men found it a great way to meet other people and practice their English.

“As an exchange student, it’s very important to learn about American life, culture and language,” Kim said.
For Hudson, the mental focus the sport requires is a stress reliever and he enjoys that it brings him into contact with “people from all walks of life.”

And while Hudson, after approximately two decades of lifting, has massive upper arms, physical size isn’t critical, he said.

“It’s been my experience that some of the most unlikely lifters turn out to be the best lifters. Their egos don’t get in the way, and they’re willing to listen,” Hudson said.

Case in point: Shih-chuan Lin, an IEI student from Taiwan who broke the junior world record for the 105-pound weight class by deadlifting 236.7 pounds at a meet on April 1.

“It was unbelievable, but I did it,” Lin said. “When John wanted me to participate in this competition, I was surprised because my body was weak, not strong, and my weight was only 108 pounds.” Lin, who said he was so nervous that his feet were trembling and he had to visit the restroom several times while waiting his turn, credited his teammates’ encouragement with helping him break the record.

“To give somebody an experience like that and see their face light up, it’s something you never forget,” Hudson said. “I’ve gotten a lot of hugs and some tears when people had to say goodbye, and they thank me for giving them a chance to experience something they never thought they could do. Recruiting international students is a way for me to return the favor for those who did the same for me when I was in their country.”

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