Institutional Expectations of ESL Students
Eleanor J. Pease, Eleanor.Pease@nyack.edu
Editors' Note: This article comes out of a presentation in the Interconnections Colloquium during the TESOL 2007 convention in Seattle on issues in language learning and cultural adaptation. We are grateful that we can share it with you here.
Introduction
Nyack College, Rockland, is located about 20 miles north of New York City on the west side of the Hudson River. The college's second location is in lower Manhattan. Both campuses serve a community of students whose diversity is the highest in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. With this population, it is clear that a good number of students are ESL speakers; some use two languages, one for the home and one for outside of the home, and others, such as Dianne, come directly from other countries to study at Nyack.
An international student from China, Dianne had arrived in the United States a few weeks before entering Nyack College as a secondsemester transfer student. She had two goals: to study business and to become an ESL teacher. The admissions director and I (ESL coordinator) developed a program for her first semester that we felt Dianne could handle academically while growing in English language proficiency. She started classes and wavered for about a year before deciding to become a TESOL major. Her ability in English grew steadily as she took a full slate of courses each semester.
Dianne excelled academically and socially. She received high evaluations from the cooperating teachers during her student teaching experience. She graduated with high honors and received the prestigious Apple Award from the School of Education; this is the highest award given to education students. She had no difficulty obtaining a teaching position in New York City and was accepted into a master's program at Columbia University's Teachers College.
Dianne's story represents a successful use of the ESL student support at the college where I am a faculty member. Those of us involved in these programs would like to be able to say that ours is a perfect system, but we must confess that some entering students fall through the cracks; therefore, we must continue to develop our system and determine other means by which we can locate students who are struggling academically because of language problems.
The Survey
When asked to be a panelist for the Interconnections Colloquium at the recent TESOL convention, I prepared a survey that was sent to the faculty on both Nyack campuses. I kept it simple in the hope that many professors would respond. Just over 30 did.
The survey asked several questions of professors:
(1) How many ESL students are in your classes in a given year?
(2) Do you have the same academic expectations of ESL students as of native English speakers? If no, briefly explain any accommodations you might make, such as grading content in written work and more or less ignoring errors in grammar. If yes, explain briefly.
(3) If you discover that an ESL student in your class is struggling academically because of language problems, do you refer the student to the ESL professional on campus?
Question one gave some options and questions two and three were essentially yes/no questions, although I asked the participants to elaborate on their responses to question two.
Considerably less than half of the faculty responded; however, many respondents added explanations of varying lengths to clarify their responses. These comments gave a good overview of their expectations of the academic performance of ESL students.
The ESL Program
Though the Nyack, Rockland, campus has only a part-time ESL student coordinator, the New York City site has a full ESL program with a director. There are two opportunities for second language learners: (a) enrolling in the English Language Institute, which prepares ESL students during the summer at reduced tuition rates, and (b) taking ESL courses during the regular academic year. In addition, there is an immersion program for Korean and Spanish-speaking students with assistance in their second language for English-only core courses.
The survey provided an idea of the numbers of ESL students in the respondents' classes: 15 professors indicated that they have two to five ESL students in their classes each academic year and 14 indicated that they have more than five in their classes each academic year. A note from one of the music professors gave a picture of our diversity: The number of ESL students in New York City continues to expand as we reach out to the Chinese and Korean communities. Our Web site also attracts people from all over the world, including Myanmar, Philippines, Slovakia, Korea, Japan, South America, and Ivory Coast, as well as the Caribbean. We love the diversity!
When they suspect that students struggle with language, some professors refer students to the ESL departments. Of the 29 professors who responded to question three, 21 stated that they usually refer ESL students to the ESL professionals, 2 said that they sometimes do, and 6 said that they did not refer students for ESL help. And then there was the one on my campus who said, "Didn't know I could," despite email reminders almost every semester.
Faculty Expectations of ESL Students' Academic Performance
In order to answer the question, "What is the institution's expectation of ESL students?" I present responses and comments from the survey.
In response to question two, 20 out of 32 respondents marked yes; the other 12 responded no. This result suggests that about one third of the respondents indicated that they do not have the same expectations for ESL students. The survey then called for an explanation. The explanations revealed a caring representation of the faculty who hold to the standards:
- For a research course: "I might be more flexible with initial submissions but end products must get to an acceptable level."
- "I will help them as much as possible, but I do not lower the standards."
- "I am willing to make accommodations if the student seeks them, but I do not like to hold any students' hands. . . . I remind (students) that there is additional help available, including tutoring."
- "I try to have a fair number of multiple choice questions as well as essay questions so that the ESL students will be able to do something on tests."
Among those who responded "no" to question two regarding academic expectations, some responded as follows:
- "Content only. I'm not as demanding with the grammar."
- "I act as an English professor and make corrections but do not drop the grade. I still expect them to master the content."
- "I put more weight in grading content, and I am more lenient with grammar. Group with English speakers."
- Global Literature course: "With in-class essays and quizzes, I don't grade for the grammar but for the content (for the whole class) because I have so many ESL students. In addition, on quizzes I don't count the grammar of the answers. I . . . give the ESL students extra time for writing. I expect them to accomplish all the reading, however, with understanding."
- Education: "Some professors indicated that they correct the grammar in order to help the ESL students."
One professor wrote that for the first time she failed an ESL student in her World Civilization class. She quickly realized the student was struggling and had trouble understanding what was going on in class. The professor told the student to withdraw and also referred her to the ESL professional. The student insisted that she didn't need help. In the end, after repeated attempts to help the student, the professor had to fail her. After the grades went out, the student tried to get the professor to change the grade and also went to the ESL professional, but at that point it was too late.
My conclusion is that most of the responding professors grade by the same standards, but offer help to individual students by personal contact, by recommending tutoring, or by referring the student to the ESL professional on campus.
Success Stories in Nyack's School of Education
With a college-wide New York State Board of Regents charter and Middle States Association and NCATE accreditation, the School of Education requires students to maintain high academic standards. At the same time, many ESL students declare education as their major.
There are many success stories. One female student who struggled with English language skills ended her program as an honors graduate and recipient of the Outstanding Student Teacher Award. She is now a successful bilingual kindergarten teacher in Miami, Florida. However, I want to conclude with an unusual success story that shows the benefits of close cooperation between the education faculty and the ESL faculty. The ESL director sent this to me as part of her response to the survey.
Maria (a pseudonym) is a single mother with three children; she worked as a lunch lady in a public school in New York City. Maria credits her success to proactive staff on the New York City campus. One ESL instructor gave her extra help, homework, and CDs to take home and watch. She states that the ESL director and writing instructor, Professor Bowen, gave her "a lot of hard time because she made me write my essays two or three times. If she hadn't pushed me, I wouldn't have learned how to write English." Professors in the School of Education encouraged her; they all believed that she could do it, and they told her so. Today, Maria has three teaching licenses: early childhood, childhood, and bilingual education. Her goal is to become a school administrator in order to influence the system. A scholarship recipient, Maria is already pursuing a master's degree in education.
Conclusions
Although the results would have been more conclusive if a larger percentage of instructors had responded, from this survey I discovered that the majority of professors on the two campuses of Nyack College maintain standards for ESL students, but at the same time they give of themselves to encourage, help, and sometimes gently push these students to do well.
After presenting the results of the survey at the 2007 TESOL Convention, I have reflected on my observations during my 12 years on the faculty at Nyack College and the survey findings. I have reached these conclusions: (a) A higher education institution that accepts ESL students must provide adequate support for these students, especially in their freshman year; (b) it should be assumed that many faculty members are not equipped to help ESL students and faculty development workshops must include sessions that provide training and assistance; (c) the registrar's office must work closely with the ESL professional on campus; and (d) conditionally admitted ESL students must be required to meet with the ESL professional regularly during their freshman year. I'm happy to report that Nyack College is on its way to fulfilling these requirements. I would be interested to hear what other higher education institutions are doing during these days of increased diversity.
Dr. Eleanor J. Pease is chair of the TESOL department of Nyack College in Nyack, New York. She spent many years in Japan, served as chair of CETC last year, and continues on the leadership team as past chair of the caucus for 2007-08.
