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urely one of the most misunderstood groups of student learners on campus are those who are designated ESL - non-native speakers/writers of the English language. Our own review of the performance of ESL students probably poses, in large measure, a subset of the same interesting dichotomy that it poses for the institution at large - that is, while ESL students are not “cost effective”, i.e., task for task, exam for exam, benchmark for benchmark, they may not perform as well as their non-ESL peers; yet when viewed more holistically, student for student, they seems to persist - in terms of retention to graduation - at a rate which outperforms their non-ESL peers. In short, we know it takes them longer; we also know they seem, overall, to do better. How then, to redress this dichotomy of cost vs. persistence at the juncture where it is most vulnerable to criticism? We would like to put, in place, a formal and dedicated effort to study the challenges ESL students present us with, and to develop diagnostic and prescriptive pedagogies, strategies and materials applicable beyond the point when ESL students complete their remedial coursework. And let’s not forget that the term “complete” can mean either a grade of Pass, or “NC”, in their terminal Basic Skills course(s). In response to what the Campus Writing Center sees as the third area of emerging student need, we propose beginning development of an ESL arm of the Campus Writing Center.
• Collaborating with the College’s Title V initiative for ESL students and sharing current research, project findings, and best practices; • Collaborating with the College’s ESL and/or Expanded Reading and Writing Task Force(s) to integrate or implement recommendations helpful to the ESL student transitioning from remediation to credit-bearing coursework; • Broadening CWC tutor / e-tutor / workshop facilitator materials and trainings; • Providing specific face-to-face and/or online grammar and language materials and supports for students who are non-native speakers of English;
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Exploring
the design of a new hour-long workshop series CWC would implement to assist
ESL students - particularly EN 101 students transitioning from BE205
- with grammar and syntax skills practice in such areas as:
• Exploring the design potential of new technologies to assist ESL students with language acquisition skills, i.e., 3-D Printing Technology and the tactile-kinesthetic assemblage of language.
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