2026 (Current Year) Faculty Courses Liberal arts and basic science courses English language courses

English 1 25

Academic unit or major: English language courses
Instructor(s): Kazunori Senoue
Class Format: Exercise (Face-to-face)
Media-enhanced courses: -
Day of week/Period (Classrooms): 1-2 Thu (W5-104)
Class: 25
Course Code: LAE.E111
Number of credits: 010
Course offered: 2026
Offered quarter: 1Q
Syllabus updated: Mar 10, 2026
Language: Japanese

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

English 1 defines and solidifies the foundational skills for effective communication in English as well as fosters international awareness, as both are typically required in the globally expanding domain of scientific and technological research activities. It also prepares students to study or do research abroad in the future. Students are assigned training exercises that cover the four language skills — reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The reading and listening materials include topics such as international and intercultural issues as well as the fundamentals of science and technology. Practice exercises in writing and speaking are provided so that students can develop confidence and competence to participate in discussions and conferences where opinions are exchanged through both text and speech. TOEFL-type exercise problems are also used in the course.

This course aims to establish a base on which students can build toward a higher level of communication competence specifically in an English language environment. The base is composed of three elements: (1) identifying relevant information accurately, (2) exercising fair judgement to form a valid opinion, and (3) stating opinions clearly and persuasively. English 1 covers these three elements, and the communication abilities acquired will help students in the future when they have to assume positions of responsibility in group activities.

Each student is assigned to a group led by an instructor. Instructors for each group conduct the course using the "Course description and aims" and "Student learning outcomes" as the basic framework. "Class direction," "Course schedule," and other information below explain the features of each class.

Course description and aims

By the end of this course, students will:
・Become aware of the degree to which practical English abilities are required for learning at university and for research activities both in Japan and abroad
・Be able to grasp the main ideas and arguments of written and spoken materials in diverse areas including international and intercultural issues, science, and technology
・Have increased their knowledge of effective vocabulary and expressions to actively communicate their ideas and opinions in English
・Have gained confidence in using English to state their opinions
・Be able to understand the structural characteristics of good paragraphs and write their own short paragraphs with unity and coherence

Keywords

Four language skills, fostering international awareness, communication skills, studying abroad, TOEFL

Competencies

Specialist skills
Intercultural skills
Communication skills
Critical thinking skills
Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

At the beginning of each class, texts will be distributed by the instructor.
In each class, students will be given a lecture about the topic of each class and do exercise for it.

Course schedule/Objectives

	Course schedule	Objectives
Class 1	Course Orientation Course Objectives, Class Structure, Preparation and Review, and Assessment	Reflect on your past experiences and approaches to learning English, and prepare to explain them clearly to others.
Class 2	Basic Parts of Speech: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs	[Preparation] Review the basic parts of speech using a high school grammar reference book or similar materials. [Review] Complete the remaining exercises and deepen your understanding of the basic parts of speech.
Class 3	Sentence Elements and Sentence Patterns (Lecture)	[Preparation] Review Sentence Elements and Sentence Patterns using a high school grammar reference book or similar materials. [Review] Review the grammatical concepts covered in class and organize them so that you can explain them to others.
Class 4	Sentence Elements and Sentence Patterns (Practice)	[Preparation] Review the materials from the previous class and organize the key points for identifying sentence patterns. [Review] Complete the remaining exercises and deepen your understanding of Sentence Elements and Sentence Patterns.
Class 5	English Sentence Analysis and Interpretation	[Preparation] Analyze the structure of the assigned English passage in advance and translate it into Japanese, making the sentence structure explicit. [Review] Reanalyze the structure of the passage covered in class and organize your understanding so that you can explain it to others. In addition, repeatedly practice reconstructing the original English sentences orally from the model translation or from your own translation.
Class 6	Preparation for the First Quarter Final Assignment	[Preparation] Review the content covered so far and identify areas you find difficult or unclear, organizing them in advance. [Review] Reanalyze the structure of the passage covered in class and organize your understanding so that you can explain it to others. In addition, repeatedly practice reconstructing the original English sentences orally from the model translation or from your own translation.
Class 7	First Quarter Final Assignment / Explanation	Conduct a comprehensive review of the course content and identify your own weaknesses and areas for further improvement.

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

None required.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

English-Japanese / Japanese - English dictionary "Wisdom 2" (Sanseido) - iPad OS application (Monokakido)

Evaluation methods and criteria

The grade for the quarter will be determined as follows:
Final assignment (80%) and active participation in class(20%)

Related courses

LAE.E112 ： English 2
LAE.E113 ： English 3
LAE.E114 ： English 4
LAE.E211 ： English 5
LAE.E212 ： English 6
LAE.E213 ： English 7
LAE.E214 ： English 8
LAE.E311 ： English 9

Prerequisites

None