ESL Readers and Writers in Higher Education

Understanding Challenges, Providing Support

Norman W. Evans, Neil J Anderson, William G. Eggington, Norman W. Evans, Neil J Anderson, William G. Eggington

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317648932
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Filología
• Subtopic: Inglés

ESL Readers and Writers in Higher Education describes the challenges ESL students in U.S. postsecondary institutions face when studying in a second language, and offers suggestions for how teachers, advisors, tutors, and institutions might provide support that meets the reading and writing needs of this very important student population.

Because the ESL profession as a whole, including what professionals are doing in the classroom, sits under the umbrella of an institutional response to a language-related challenge, some solutions aimed at helping students achieve optimal proficiency lie outside of the classroom. As such, this book is based on the assertion that language development support is not the sole responsibility of language teachers. Everyone on campuses that hosts ESL students bears some responsibility for these students' language development. Chapters are therefore, intentionally adapted to appeal to a wide variety of readers from classroom teachers, and teachers in training, to admissions officers, academic advisors, and international student advisors.

PART I

Understanding Challenges

1

UNDERSTANDING CHALLENGES, PROVIDING SUPPORT

ESL Readers and Writers in Higher Education

Norman W. Evans and Maureen Snow Andrade

Vignette

A small but rapidly growing U.S.-based company is expanding into various Asian countries. They are seeking new employees who have three essential qualifications: solid academic training from a reputable business school, native proficiency in an Asian language, and very strong English skills—particularly in speaking and writing. Since “native proficiency” in an Asian language is required, a number of promising applicants are citizens of Asian countries who studied business abroad in the United States. To determine the quality of the applicants’ English skills, the committee has face-to-face interviews with applicants and asks them to respond in writing to a memo that outlines a proposed business plan. The search committee soon discovers that these applicants’ English skills, especially in writing, are not at all what they expected from people who have spent years in the United States studying at accredited universities. In some cases, the low level of English is disturbing.

Introduction and Overview of the Challenges

Students for whom English is a second language (ESL) not only benefit individually from higher education but contribute globally to the human condition and public good.

There is a wealth of evidence that increased [educational] attainment improves health, lowers crime rates, and yields citizens who are both globally aware and participate more in civic and democratic processes such as voting and volunteering, all of which have enormous implications for our democracy.

Lumina Foundation, 2013, p. 3

Recognizing these benefits, postsecondary institutions around the world are providing access to greater numbers of individuals from diverse backgrounds rather than limiting opportunity to an elite few.

By the year 2020, 65% of all jobs in the United States will require a postsecondary certificate or degree (Lumina Foundation, 2013). Currently, only 38.7% of Americans aged 25 to 64 possess a two- or four-year degree (Lumina Foundation, 2013). In other countries, such as the United Kingdom, governments are widening participation by raising awareness, increasing aspirations, motivating students, and supporting attainment (Grundy, 2007). To prepare individuals for future professions, promote global economic development, and build a worldwide knowledge community, populations previously underrepresented for reasons of race, gender, socioeconomic status, or low levels of academic preparation must be both welcomed and supported.

Increasing access for diverse student populations, and specifically, nonnative English language speakers (NNESs), entails careful consideration of linguistic skills. Institutions may do little to provide, encourage, or require further development of English language skills beyond requiring specific admission scores on standardized proficiency tests. NNESs, consisting of both international students and residents, may receive minimal attention aside from possible ESL courses prior to or immediately after admission (see Chapter 2). These courses predominantly focus on international students rather than residents, though residents may also lack the English language proficiency needed for academic tasks.

Consistent with this book’s theme of challenges and support, this chapter first provides information related to challenges with common assumptions about NNESs in higher education. It then explicates issues related to NNESs’ linguistic and cultural needs, details current support practices, and discusses related theory. The chapter ends with implications for support.

Common Assumptions

Many institutions operate on faulty assumptions about the language needs and abilities of NNESs. This is true for both international and resident students. These assumptions are based on a lack of understanding of language testing and what standardized test scores represent, and the need for further language development post-admission and how to support this. Following is a discussion of the two most common assumptions.

Assumption 1

The first major assumption that institutions make is that once NNESs meet admission requirements, they have adequate English language skills to succeed in postsecondary-level academic work. In reality, NNESs come from different backgrounds with varying language skill sets; some are international students in the United States on a short-term basis, while others—often referred to as Generation 1.5—are residents who arrived as children (early arrivals) or in their preteen or teenage years (late arrivals) (Ferris, 2009; Kanno & Harklau, 2012). Though international students must generally pass an English proficiency exam to be admitted, they face significant cultural and linguistic challenges for which their developing language skills may be inadequate (Andrade & Evans, 2009; Ferris, 2009). Resident students also enroll with varying levels of English language proficiency, often insufficient for the linguistic rigors of postsecondary education (Ferris, 2009), yet these students are not typically required to establish their level of English language proficiency prior to admission or even declare themselves as NNESs.

The TOEFL and similar exams, required for international NNESs, are designed to be a minimal indicator of the linguistic skill necessary for academic success. These “institutional English language entry requirements can assist but do not ensure that students will enter university at a sufficiently high level of proficiency” (Barrett-Lennard, Dunworth, & Harris, 2011, p. 100). Resident NNESs’ linguistic skills may be similar to or even weaker than those of international students, yet institutions may not assess these students. In some cases, post-admission basic skills screening occurs. Even then, however, these students may be directed to remedial reading and writing courses that do not address their linguistic needs. Additionally, testing requirements may differ depending on institutional type (e.g., community college or four-year university), although students have similar linguistic needs across institutional type.

This situation is largely due to misunderstanding what second language learners must accomplish in terms of academic language once they have been admitted to college. Both groups of NNESs have significant language development needs. As such, though they meet required admission standards, many of these students are likely to require further language development and instruction, as indicated in the following statement:

Successful participation in academic and professional discourse communities such as business, science, engineering, and medicine requires a strong foundation of very advanced language and common core academic skills. To participate successfully at the postsecondary level, learners require additional knowledge and expertise in content, specialized vocabulary, grammar, discourse structure, and pragmatics.

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages [TESOL], 2010, p. 1

Assumption 2

The second major assumption that institutions make is that since second language students are immersed in an English-speaking environment once they enroll, their academic language skills (i.e., reading and writing) will naturally continue to develop as they progress through their studies at the institution; by extension, these students will be proficient English users by the time they graduate. This assumption is not supported by language acquisition theory. The reality is that many students’ writing skills plateau once they complete their first-year English courses (Ferris, 2009; Storch, 2009). While some students in majors with extensive writing requirements generally do improve their skills, many others do not. Additionally, writing demands for specific disciplines may differ from what is taught in ESL preparatory programs, or students may fail to apply these strategies effectively and consistently (Anderson, Evans, & Hartshorn, 2014; Counsell, 2011). In other cases, the general academic skills taught in ESL programs may not prepare students adequately for study in their chosen disciplines (Benzie, 2011). Faculty members expect students to be linguistically capable of managing the rigors of coursework; however, they find that NNESs lack the linguistic skills necessary for them to function on par with their native-English-speaking peers. Even so, the faculty do not alter their curriculum to accommodate NNESs’ limited linguistic skills and indicate having little, if any, time to help students with their English language needs (Andrade & Evans, 2007).

Compounding this is the fact that “individual learners develop language proficiency at variable rates influenced by factors such as educational background, first language, learning style, cognitive style, motivation, and personality, as well as sociocultural factors” (TESOL, 2010, p. 2). The development of linguistic proficiency is gradual and requires complementary programming and support across the institution (Barrett-Lennard et al., 2011). Indeed, faculty members feel strongly that it is the institution’s responsibility to provide support services such as tutors, learning centers, and special English classes for NNESs (Andrade & Evans, 2007).

Linguistic and Cultural Issues

A fairly extensive amount of literature on international students indicates their linguistic, cultural, and social challenges (Andrade, 2006, 2008; Andrade & Evans, 2009; Ritz, 2010; Russell, Rosenthal, & Thomson, 2009; Tochkov, Levine, & Sanaka, 2010). Levels of English language proficiency can compound or alleviate cultural and social transitions (Galloway & Jenkins, 2009; Lee, Park, & Kim, 2009; Sherry, Thomas, & Chui, 2010) as well as affect academic adjustment. The same is true of resident NNESs. In both cases, “incoming students must … negotiate a new range of sociocultural situations such as faculty office hours, team work, public presentations, and frequently, independent living” (TESOL, 2010, p. 1). Mismatches between teaching and learning styles and related expectations also cause difficulties (Huang, 2009; Xiao, 2006). NNESs may struggle with academic vocabulary, written and oral discourse patterns, expectations for synthesis and critical analysis, classroom interaction patterns, class participation, and the amount and difficulty level of reading materials, among other issues (see Chapter 13).

Recent findings at a community college point to another very real problem: though nearly 86% of immigrants who attended high school in another country needed to attend remedial classes, only 25% actually enrolled in these classes during their first semester. Possibly, this is because they did not want to be considered remedial and believed that “over time the natural acquisition of English language skills might enable them to test out of remedial requirements” (Conway, 2010, p. 229). These findings indicate that students are not taking advantage of the help they need, even when it is available, and supports Assumption 2, mentioned earlier, related to misunderstanding about language acquisition.

Linguistic Theory

As a foundation to understanding these challenges, a brief background in the theory of language acquisition is needed—specifically, what it means to learn versus to acquire a language and what level of proficiency is required for acade...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• PART I Understanding Challenges
• PART II Providing Support
• Contributors
• Index