University ESL programs

American and Canadian universities offer ESL (English as a Second Language) programs at the university. In such programs, English teaching professionals offer English classes for students aiming to study at universities and graduate school and intensive English classes for adults. At Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ), which is an American university, we also offer such an ESL program. That is the Academic English Program (AEP).

Specializing in academic English

AEP has offered an American-style ESL program since 1982 when it was established as TUJ's ESL program. As its name suggests, AEP specializes in "academic English" and offers high-quality English education for people aiming to study at universities and graduate schools in the English-speaking world, or at universities and graduate schools in Japan where classes are held in English, including TUJ.

To succeed as a "global citizen"

With foreign language schools and English conversation classes becoming popular all over Japan, it is becoming common to learn English directly from native speakers. So why do you need to study at AEP?

Being able to use English—the international lingua franca—as proficiently as your own mother tongue is one of the foremost requirements for becoming a successful "global citizen." Learning together with people of various nationalities at universities or graduate schools in English-speaking countries is of tremendous assistance in doing this. You need to obtain a high TOEFL score in order to enter a university or graduate school in the English-speaking world, yet a good TOEFL score alone is not sufficient to achieve success in the academic sphere.

You need to learn not only "English necessary for entering university" but also "English necessary after entering university"—in other words, academic English. The best place to put this into practice is an ESL program at a university, such as AEP.

Experiences you can only get through an ESL program at a university

Another characteristic of ESL programs at universities is that you can learn within a university environment as such programs have been established in parallel with the university. At TUJ, AEP and the university and graduate schools all occupy the same campus, where undergraduate and graduate students from all over the world gather together in adjacent classrooms to take classes held all in English.

In AEP, classes are also held entirely in English, and many of the students studying there are of nationalities other than Japanese. All instructors teaching in AEP are English teaching professionals who have studied English teaching at graduate schools. Furthermore, TUJ has a wide variety of events and clubs in which AEP students can participate alongside TUJ undergraduate students, meaning that, both inside and outside of class, AEP students have opportunities to "experience" the world using English as a common language.