TOEFL Intensive Program (TIP)

Now in its fifth year, an all new program!

In Fall Term 2003, the English Language Academy started a new TOEFL Intensive Program (TIP), fully revised and updated in 2005 to include changes in the next generation of TOEFL testing, the TOEFL iBT. In our TOEFL Intensive Program, High Intermediate and Advanced English students can prepare for the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) full time. TIP students work on TOEFL skills in classes and computer labs for 19.5 hours per week. Because of the intensity of this program, it meets the full requirements of F-1 non-immigrant visa status. In the first five years of this program, more than 350 satisfied ELA students met their TOEFL goals by studying in TIP.

Applications for the next TIP session are now being accepted. Enrollment in TIP is limited, so we suggest that you apply soon. As a TIP student, you will work intensively on all of the skills measured on the TOEFL, whether you take the new TOEFL iBT or the traditional paper based test: writing, reading, listening, speaking, grammar; both independent and integrated tasks. You will also work on real world, academic tasks, on developing your vocabulary, and take at least two TOEFL practice tests.

Your four courses in the all new TOEFL Intensive Program include:

• Writing and Integrated Writing and Grammar Skills for 6.0 hours/week
• Reading and Reading Lab for 4.5 hours/week
• Listening and Listening Lab for 4.5 hours/week
• Speaking and Integrated Speaking Skills for 4.5 hours/week
  

If you have taken the TOEFL iBT and received a score of 61, the computer based TOEFL (CBT) and scored 173 (or 500 on the paper based test) you may be eligible for the program during your second term of study at the ELA. We will re-test you at the English Language Academy, to make sure that you are an appropriate student for TIP. If your score is below 500 upon re-testing at the English Language Academy, you will continue to be placed in regular ELA classes, and take courses in writing, reading, grammar and spoken English. Students enrolled in the TOEFL Intensive Program must demonstrate their 500 TOEFL and be writing at the Advanced level, normally demonstrated by having passed High Intermediate Writing.

Download the English Language Academy’s TIP Application form.

For F-1 transfer students only: Please ask your current school to complete this form and send it to the English Language Academy.

Courses and the TOEFL Exam

While our curriculum is not designed to teach the TOEFL exam, all of the work in our intensive English courses prepares students to do well on the TOEFL test. In fact, our students consistently make excellent improvement on the TOEFL in 10 weeks of intensive study in the Academy.

In our experience as ESL and college instructors, we are well aware of the skills needed to succeed in university courses and in professional careers involving English. These skills involve much more than the TOEFL test can measure. In other words, the TOEFL is not the only indication of academic or professional success.

However, because we are interested in how well our students perform on the TOEFL, an Institutional TOEFL exam is given at the end of every term for students who want to apply for admission to regular degree programs at DePaul University. Many students attend the Academy before entering regular university programs.