For English

英語教養科目　KEY Program

Program Overview and Objectives

The School of Global Humanities and Social Sciences (SGHSS) offers a specialized program for Academic English Courses called the KEY program, which fosters academic English skills and helps students develop a high-level of proficiency in the English language.

The program focuses on integrated English skills to improve English communication skills rather than conventional skill-specific courses.

The KEY Program emphasizes that English proficiency is truly the “KEY” to opening doors that pave the way to success in the modern globalized world. Successful completion of the twelve English courses will help students communicate effectively in English.

Our goals include helping our students achieve the level of English required for a long-term study abroad program in English-speaking countries (or English-taught programs in non-English-speaking countries). Our primary goal is to have students reach TOEFL ITP 550 or IELTS 6.0.

Features

Feature 1: Curriculum design featuring an integrated learning approach to all four skills:

Classes are scheduled twice a week for 90 minutes, rather than once a week.

Critical-thinking and problem-solving skills are an integral part of The KEY Program. We motivate our students to develop critical thinking skills to solve problems in English through English activities.

The program also encourages students to improve their level of English proficiency necessary to study abroad in higher-educational institutions for the short term or long term.

Feature 2: Streaming classes according to their English proficiency levels:

From the second semester of the first year, students will be instructed according to their English proficiency.

Students are placed in either Advanced or Standard Groups based on their class performance and TOEFL ITP test results. Our teachers aim to cater their lessons to suit the English proficiency level of their classes.

Feature 3: Preparation for English proficiency tests:

The KEY Program offers a test preparation English course to teach test-taking tips and strategies for the IELTS. We also regularly administer institutionalized TOEFL ITP and the IELTS tests on campus, some of which are funded by the SGHSS.

Coaching Fellows in our program provide guidance for both the IELTS and TOEFL ITP to help students meet the minimum requirement of the scores (TOEFL ITP 500, IELTS 6.0) by the end of the second year.

The KEY Courses

Our students need to complete a total of twelve English courses in The KEY program over two years, some of which are scheduled for twice a week and others once a week.