The Ohio State University’s intensive English program, the American Language Program (ALP), was founded in 1983. The ALP serves graduate and undergraduate students who are looking to improve their English proficiency in order to gain admission to a degree-seeking academic program. Most ALP students plan to pursue an academic program at The Ohio State University, but many go on to study at other institutions.

Ohio State ranks among the top 10 destinations for international students in the United States, enrolling over 6000 students from more than 110 countries. Our goal at the ALP is to encourage you to experience university life and American culture.

The American Language Program offers a truly student-centered curriculum, class structure, and pedagogical approach. Rather than place students into a rigid level system, we create classes and adapt our curriculum around the students each and every academic term. Each term our classes and distribution of students can look entirely different. This allows us to respond directly to our students’ unique needs every semester.

Students are placed into foundation classes if their English skills are limited. These classes emphasize vocabulary expansion, grammar analysis, and general English skills. Students focus on building understanding in listening and speaking and accuracy in speaking and writing.

Students are placed in intermediate classes if they can communicate with English speakers in most situations, but their fluency and control are still weak. Intermediate classes begin to emphasize English for academic purposes.

Students are placed in advanced classes if they are nearly ready to begin academic study or participate with confidence in professional settings. Advanced classes familiarize students with organizing, paraphrasing, summarizing, and synthesizing academic English in both spoken and written forms. The advanced classes are often referred to as Capstone courses and can be taken repeatedly up to a full calendar year to allow students to gain admission in an academic program.

Typical Class Schedule 

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 

9:00 AM - 1:35 PM