The English Language Institute celebrated its 75th anniversary with a daylong colloquium on October 28, 2016 in the Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan.
The English Language Institute was founded in 1941 as the very first intensive English program at a U.S. university. Ever since, ELI has played a central role in the development of the fields of ESL, Applied Linguistics, and English for Academic Purposes.
From its early days as a trailblazer in the audio-lingual approach to language learning, to its groundbreaking work in pronunciation teaching, genre analysis, and corpus linguistics, ELI has served as a model for virtually all university-based English language programs that have followed it. Today, ELI continues this tradition of pedagogical innovation with its recent forays in online and community-engaged EAP instruction.
We were thrilled and honored that some of the legendary teachers and scholars associated with the ELI over its long history traveled back to Ann Arbor for this event, and were joined by leading scholars of corpus linguistics, EAP graduate communication, ESL/EFL teacher education, and textbook development.
