Otterbein’s integrated language arts (ILA) program empowers future teachers to thrive in their own classrooms. Paralleling the literary studies major, ILA immerses students in great reads, compelling questions, and transformative writing experiences. Through it, students come to know iconic writers, groundbreaking texts, and the intellectual buzz of interpretive thinking.

As an ILA student, you will explore the dynamic interplay between literature and culture, identity, psychology, history, politics, and other forces. Investigate how texts make meaning, create worlds, and generate characters. Develop your own writerly voice and style. Encounter innovative, portable teaching strategies. And pursue your own passions. Holistically, the ILA program will enable you to:

• Read closely, critically, and innovatively
• Write clearly, eloquently, and insightfully
• Know a rich range of literary terms, forms, genres, periods, histories, theories, and writers
• Study literature in different historical, cultural, biographical, formal, and theoretical contexts
• See writing and literature as something that can enrich, complicate, and transform the human experience
• Produce original reading and writing projects

Learn More

For more information about the Education licensure aspect of this program, visit our Adolescence to Young Adult Education program page. You can also learn more about this program in the academic catalog. If you are an existing student, be sure to look at the catalog for the year you entered Otterbein.