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#3. A LANGUAGE HOSPITAL WITH AND E.R.
With a language gymnasium and a bridge director to help with acculturation, I should be okay arriving and getting settled-in. I would then wish for an office that offered E.R. CARE such as I give my students when they hit my office WITH AN EMERGENCY ACADEMIC problems. One afternoon an international student from Hong Kong who took an English 111 class in the computer room became very frustrated because she couldn't comprehend fast enough to complete the assignment in the class period. She asked the instructor for a second place on campus where she might have access to the program on a computer and was told by the instructor that originally disks were checked out to the students to solve such problems, but no longer because the students altered the assignments on the disks. The instructor suggested she keep trying to work faster and to print off the assignment for study at the library computer lab. The class closed before she figured out how to print, and she left the computer room to hurry to her next class planning to get the print-out later. The student, having figured out how to solve her future problems, returned to get a copy of the day's assignment and was frustrated to find her instructor had gone home and the English Lab was locked. I was still at my desk correcting papers when she knocked on my door. My computer is hooked into the English Lab, so I pulled up the assignment and let her print in my office. She did not lose a day of class work over her emergency academic problem. I seem to have an talent for solving emergency academic problems for the international students come often. I would like to have a place for emergency situations in my new country of study. It would be a place when I could drop in unannounced and untangle a mangled lecture without interrupting the instructor's busy schedule. Of course, the person in such an office would have to be familiar with a broad spectrum of classes and have back up materials to support difficult and varied course concepts where I might get lost. The person in charge would have to be well schooled in educational curriculum.
I remembered serving such a position myself when I worked with Title I-Migrant Education. My official title was Resource Teacher and Coordinator. The district office housed copies of all the approved texts used in the district, so when a student was in any kind of trouble academically, I picked up a copy of the text, contacted the teacher to see what the upcoming lessons would be, and prepared the students with a graphic organizer of keywords to be used in the upcoming lecture. It was a preventative instead of a corrective approach. My office became a treasure box of supplements in every discipline for I acted as a liaison between student and instructor for any concept difficult for a foreigner to grasp in any courses. As RESOURCE TEACHER AND COORDINATOR, I gave multiple other services when requested by the instructor. Sometimes the instructor requested the text be read onto tape and put in the hands of students so the oral and visual would kick-in together to strengthen students in their personal study. Sometimes the teacher would ask me to design a semantic organizer to show the relationships of past information to future chapters, or education in general. (If the foreign student were a whole-to-parts learner, this was the only kind of supplement that pulled them through.) Sometimes I would construct manipulatives that students lacking language could use to grasp concepts. Sometimes the teacher would ask me to read a test orally such as was done with the blind students, or be available to explain word meanings if the test were under a time limit. Some of these tasks I could coordinate with someone else, even a student, especially when I could set it up ahead. But emergency cases were always mine alone because coordination takes time, and falling behind even one class period is suicide for a foreign student since they don't have the ability to jump into language at any point as does the native speaker. Many academic emergency cases require spotting the problem BEFORE the next class period. This was a job where language experience was priceless.
None of these services are much different than the Learning Assistance Lab here on Ricks campus offers to new language learners, except that the Learning Lab also offers this same support to seven thousand other students. Though we have wonderfully talented people who direct services in the lab, serving this big clientele requires the lab use student tutors who are just digging into education themselves--not Juniors or Seniors with educational experience. The whole idea of student tutors is tremendously healthy since they bring in such a fantastic amount of energy and are directed in the skills they are able to share. But, which college Freshman or even Sophomore is experienced in language problems along with the expertise in a discipline? Which Freshman or Sophomore has had enough SPEECH THERAPY TRAINING to address accent reduction while tutoring a curricula? Which Freshman or Sophomore has the experience to augment or interpret what a fully trained instructor knows, or is competent enough to act as a LIAISON WITH COLLEGE FACULTY? Courses go too fast to learn what you need as you need it. I would enjoy having a hospital like lab in my new country where I could continue to increase my vocabulary or study skills or study with a native speaking tutor, but, I hope my new country's academic hospital has an emergency entrance for right now problems. I would want E.R. to be available from an office EXPERIENCED IN SOLVING LANGUAGE PROBLEMS which I might run into--with an emergency doctor who is a trained curriculum specialist, so my language treatment can be diagnosed and remediated before my next class so I wouldn't fall painfully behind.
#4. A DIRECTOR OF SCATTERED SERVICES
With support classes, friendship bridges, and an E.R. academic room, my next wish would be for a director of scattered services. I do not think scattered services are a bad thing. In fact, the opposite would be bad. It is better that many people do a little in many areas of the campus for the foreign student than to push them into a corner somewhere. After all, the goal is to integrate them, but in the case of the technology services, it is frightfully frustrating for the foreign students who have difficulty asking the right question to find the right things when the newness of technology intimidating even for the regular student. I have run into such a problem with my English 111 students. At the present time in the library there is a grammar check available on the 6.0 Windows program, but the print-out for the stat sheet is only available if the stats are converted to 5.1 DOS. While the program has been installed on 16 computers, it has a users license that only allows one of them to run at a time. Furthermore, the computer aids have not been trained to help students with these stat sheets yet. These stat sheets are very useful to a foreign student, but getting them schooled on the process of producing one is very tricky. In addition, there is a grammar skills drill program available that is wonderful for foreign students, but it has been installed on a system with two users. If the student takes it on one, the grades go into the library, but if taken on the other, the grades go back to the English department. It becomes quite a scavenger hunt for a teacher to monitor the progress of the foreign student over these lines. Additionally, when the computers go down in the library lab, there are seven computers that run off a different system still working in the Learning Lab. If international students had access to all of these secrets, they could improve there own papers, their own grammar skills, and get their papers done on time even when power outages force the regular student to look for a friend's computer in the dorm--another option international students seldom have.
I was contacted by the Toefl people to be a test sight for a newly developed computer program of Toefl test preparation skill-builders, but I had no specific place to use it, so I let it pass. Often the wife of a foreign student, who is allowed to take one class concurrently when hubby is enrolled full time, borrows my written materials to study for the Toefl test. Skill-builder computer programs are on the market now and would benefit foreign students tremendously, but such an idea would require a designated room and academic specialist, or A SCATTERED SERVICE DIRECTOR that could map out these special opportunities and see that the international student can find them.
Supplemental skills for international students could be added in the already established Learning Lab if an expert were available to design them. I would like to see a unit on research papers because the international student is engaged in writing them before the get them in the English classes. This is no problem for students who have done them in high school or had roommates who have done them to explain, but foreign students are on their own. Projects get the international student into the same type of trouble. Asians especially are culturally trained to please the teacher and let the teacher control all the guidelines. American's pride themselves on being unique self-starters, so when a project is assigned, the international student waits to be told how while the American student immediately designs something themselves. The difference in the effort is a cultural problem. SELF-IMPROVEMENT LANGUAGE units could also be added for international students such as: two-word verbs, idiomatic expressions, cultural applications, or phonetic exchanges. I would like to see a shelf of HIGH INTEREST LOW LEVEL READING texts placed somewhere all by themselves for the international student who wants to read something light during the holiday season or between sessions or semesters. Many times these students go to the public library, but the children's books always have children's stories. They want to read adult stories with easy enough vocabulary to build their efficiency in word flow patterns. Very few such texts are in our college library, and they are sandwiched between regular books which makes them difficult for the international student to find.
I would like to see a shelf of TAPED TEXTBOOKS that any student, but especially an international student, could check out when needed. I had a history professor call me about one international student who couldn't get through the reading assignments. He followed my suggestion to make tapes, and with the help of the tapes the student survived the class. I'm sure such tapes could be stored with other audio-visual aids in the media center if a director could get them made and cataloged.
I would like to see a TRAINED TESTER available to an international student so that something concrete could be given when the student desires to know if he is improving, or if the instructor wants to know what level the student is capable of. Support help is available to all students through peer tutors, but testing with diagnosis and remediation is a little more complicated. I had a student from St. Vincent whom I noticed made irregular patterns with her note taking. I pulled her in, tested her and discovered she had no space relationship as well as a low reading level. Seldom is an international student ever suspected to have disabilities, but they do--and occasionally they get admitted into college disability and all. Informing my students other teachers of her perception problem helped gain enough support in the other classrooms that she had a successful experience that semester. It would be nice to have a specialist able to compile a language profile which could be shared and compared with the student or the instructor. We have this service for regular students who have learning disabilities to aid teachers who ask for help, but instructors seldom suspect that a problem is anything but a language problem in a foreign student. Furthermore, these specialists cannot furnish a trail of improvement testing such as language would require. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have an open line between a specialist and teacher to confer about such problems, or even the simple problem of getting lost in the course itself? I would feel so much more secure studying in a country that offers a specialist who is a liaison to my course instructor, one whom I could check my language progress as well as the course progress without being tempted to monopolizing the instructor's preparation period.
I hope my new country has bridges to help me academically in all these ways, but I would like one more important feature--SUPERVISED STUDY GROUPS. Study groups are an integral part of college, but international students are seldom included in NATIVE SPEAKER study groups. The goal of the group is to understand the material more quickly, but the international student slows the group down asking questions about language; thus, they are often left out of the groups. Regularly, international students ask me how Americans can be so friendly in class, but so unwilling to study with them after class.
I hope my new country will address this situation. I would want to study with a group when in a new language. Idaho State University is conducting international study groups in English in their Writing Center. As I investigated the success of such a venture, I was informed that the experience has been that the foreign students want the study groups, but only certain tutors were able to keep the language afloat enough to make them successful. There is a real tendency to revert to the native language when struggling for a concept. The tutor must have a strong personality and be good at animating the language to be successful. Usually Seniors or graduate students are hired for the task. I hope the country I go to has Seniors and graduate students, or I hope they appoint a faculty member to build this academic bridge to help me with my major discipline.
#5. A PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR
The last thing I would wish for in my new place of study would be a PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR since I would want other native speakers to understand and accept me. I would want my instructors to be informed of what it is like to have a language need and treat me with empathy. I hope there would be an office in my new country where articles flow out for publication informing faculty and community of second language experience encounters.
Ever since I have been at Ricks I have been involved in this type of thing. To date I have published five articles and given seven presentations about the needs of international students. "Blessed Are Those Who Furnish Bandaids" will be my sixth. Additional, I have given volunteer service to members of the community who came looking for language help. Sometimes the service was in the form of English packets to be sent to foreign countries (ie.Brother Swartz, Brother Papenfuss), and sometimes it was to give accent reduction to someone needing it in the community (Brother Olsen's request for Manuca Picket, the owner of Ford motor company's request for Marco Polo). To me, this public relation service was no different than the time I went to the Menan middle school who requested that Ricks college English department judge a speech contest.
Occasionally, I have to use volunteer time to teach a Ricks college student who got through the system somehow and doesn't deserve to be her. At the present time I have one such student who was accepted as a non-matriculating student, meaning he could have had basketball or bowling where English wasn't a necessity, but was registered for my English 108 class because it is in the schedule book as ESL. He has made Rexburg his home and desires to learn the language. I consider my effort with this young man pure public relations for the college. I think public relations is important. I would like to see a public relations person prepare packets that the students who come for only a year to mature in the gospel could take back with them to help them teach the gospel through language.
Well, that is the end of my wish list. I have listed five strong supportive areas with a baker's dozen service for an international student. I'm sure it looks complicated because I have treated the divisions as five different entities, but in reality, one person could feasibly function in each of the five entities as long as it is not expected that all five be simultaneous achievements. The person chosen to do this would have to have knowledge and experience in each of these various entities, have a background in a broad curricula, and be self-motivated, flexible, and creative. I chose to respond to the question, "How would you justify additional support for the international student?" in this way because I sincerely feel I would like that kind of support should I ever study in a new language. I hope this addresses your question satisfactorily, since I deeply believe the international student with language is the strongest key Ricks has to carrying the gospel throughout the world.
Since I was aksed by personal request to address this issue, I have included a summary of possible services listed in the above evaluation, "My Wish Bridge".
SUPPORT SERVICE SUMMARY
1. APPLIED LANGUAGE CLASS-FOR ORAL PRACTICE AND COMMUNICATIONS
2. WRITING CLASS-FOR PRACTICE IN CRITICAL WRITING (OPINIONS)
3. THE SAME ADVISOR FOR ALL FOREIGN STUDENTS
4. OLSEN OVERSEER-settling in, counselor, government regulations
5. SISTER SEARCEY SERVICES-fit-in friendliness, bridges to natives
6. E.R. CARE FOR EMERGENCY ACADEMIC PROBLEMS
7. RESOURCE TEACHER AND COORDINATOR FOR DIFFICULT CLASS SUPPORT TO TAKE PRESSURE OF INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTORS
8. SPEECH THERAPY TRAINING FOR ACCENT REDUCTION
9. LIAISON WITH COLLEGE FACULTY WITH KNOWLEDGE OF TESTING FOR SPECIAL PROBLEMS OR LANGUAGE GROWTH HISTORY
10. A DIRECTOR OF SCATTERED SERVICES AND TECHNOLOGY
11. COORDINATOR TO PROVIDE SPECIAL LANGUAGE NEED UNITS FOR ALREADY ESTABLISHED CAMPUS FACILITIES SUCH AS: SELF-IMPROVEMENT UNITS IN LANGUAGE, RESEARCH PAPERS, OR PROJECT COUNSEL AND APPLICATION FOR LEARNING LAB; TAPED TEXTBOOKS PLACED IN THE MEDIA CENTER; COMPUTER PROGRAMS FOR TOEFL OR OTHER SKILL- BUILDERS IN COMPUTER ROOMS; HIGH INTEREST LOW LEVEL READING IN LIBRARY.
12. SUPERVISOR OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT STUDY GROUPS.
13. PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR
. . ....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... . .
ESL PROGRAM OPTIONS
CHOOSING AN ESL PROGRAM IS LIKE BUYING A CAR. FIRST YOU LOOK AT THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS YOU ARE GOING TO CARRY AND THE AMOUNT OF ROOM IN THE GARAGE TO SEE HOW YOUR NEEDS CAN BE MET. THEN YOU CONSIDERED THE AMOUNT OF MONEY INVOLVED TO SEE HOW YOU CAN LOOK THE BEST FOR WHATEVER YOUR FINANCIAL STATUS CAN SUPPORT. THE BIGGER AND FANCIER YOU GO, THE MORE THE COST BUT THE MORE SOUND THE VEHICLE. THUS, THE SOUNDNESS OF THE EXPENSE IS AT THE BASE OF THE DECISION.
A. An ESL Program Within the College
ADVANTAGE: This idea is popular with four-year institutions trying to strengthen the graduate school. Having the ESL program as credited courses encourages the student to improve skills during the years of undergraduate attendance--thus, a better grad student.
DISADVANTAGE: This idea has been unpopular in the two-year college since they do not reap the benefit of time as does the graduate school. Inviting students into ESL for two years does not give them the seasons it takes to mature into strong language students. Without maturity time the desired goal for language students of higher quality is weakened by accepting newer and less mature language speakers as students. In UCLA the experience has been that the foreign students keep to themselves for study so even the four year program has its disadvantage.
COMMENT: In some areas ESL programs within the college works very well. Pasco College is located in an area saturated with oriental immigrants and near Columbia University. The two-year program serves both the community and the four-year college goals with success.
B. An ESL Institute Outside the college
ADVANTAGE: This allows submersion in the language, the best way to learn in the shortest time. If the student remains weak even after the three month program, there is no obligation from the college or university to admit. Outside Institutes can also offer exchange credit for certain university skills.
DISADVANTAGE: This idea is very expensive for the ESL student since success is not obtained in one three month period unless the student has a good head start on the language before arriving. Financial resources are drained indefinitely from the student since there is no guarantee of admittance by completing the course. Often the extra time drains their finances such that they run out of money and have to return home without a degree disgraced.
COMMENT: Utah State University's Intensive Language Institute allows exchange credit for International Teacher Assistants to become trained in animated language skills in a teacher trainer development course. This course is REQUIRED by the graduate school and credit is accepted even though it is Language Institute credit. This mutual agreement with the graduate school encourages international students to take the course early, allowing the animation of language to mature and classroom teaching skills to mature through undergraduate years. It also provides a holding bag of earned college credits awarded the international student upon entrance which is some compensation for time lost outside the university.
C. Controlled Placement Program
ADVANTAGE: Requiring the student to hold until tested and placed in appropriate curricula is a technique at BYU and assures that the student is college capable, at curricula level is, and on a discipline track where student will find success.
DISADVANTAGE: If any student should not start late, it would be an international student. Not allowing the student to begin when the regular class begins puts them too far behind in the semester to take regular courses. If regular schedules are not available to them when they start, they have a semester of meaningless credits or are out of sync semesterwise for early majoring which lengthens their stay in the United States beyond what they anticipated.
COMMENT: Webber State University requires international students to complete a full week of submersion in English before the regular class schedule begins. During this week formal and informal evaluations are made to guide the student into courses where the success factor for a first semester freshman is high. Much public relations work has been done with faculty to assure success of this program.
D. A Full-time ESL Hire Within the college.
ADVANTAGE: A trained faculty member can utilize all facilities already in place on campus for regular students by providing resourceful guidance so the international student finds and uses them. This specialist can design additional language coated supplements to the facilities already in use such as Learning Lab, Media center, and library. This specialist should have an easily available location for emergencies and good public relation skills for interaction with faculty in the international students behalf. The role of the specialist would be more the role of a coordinator of international services than an ESL department.
DISADVANTAGE: ESL (English as a Second Language) or EFL (English as a Foreign Language) is the faddish term with world wide acceptance for help with this audience of students. Credibility as a part of any particular division leaves this work as a sort of "Man Without a Country". This has been a verbal complaint at every TESOL conference I have attended. If the ESL unit is not within the college as a recognized equal, their is no representation anywhere such as Academic Counsel.