This three-part section will first focus on the enrollment and placement of Vietnamese students in the Applied English Center (AEC) and then on the assessment of their writing samples. This information will provide a basis for the last part of the chapter, in which a design for a writing course for these students will be presented.
The AEC provides intensive and semi-intensive instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL) to students from many language and cultural backgrounds. Four skill areas English structure, speaking and understanding, reading, and writing are taught at four levels: Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced I and Advanced II. Elementary and intermediate students are full-time AEC students, enrolled in twenty hours a week of instruction, while the Advanced I and Advanced II students may be either full or part-time AEC students, depending on their proficiency. Some are concurrently enrolled in Kansas University courses, if their English skills, particularly aural comprehension, are adequate.
These four levels of instruction are taught in classes with an average of fourteen students for approximately sixteen weeks in fall and spring semesters and for eight weeks in the summer session. In addition to this type of instruction, special classes or tutorials are provided for students whose needs are best met outside of regular classroom instruction. These are usually offered to advanced students and have predominantly focused on reading and writing skills. The AEC Proficiency Test Battery, and, for returning students, recommendations from their AEC teachers, determine placement in instructional levels or special courses. This test, which includes sections on aural comprehension, grammar, reading and vocabulary, and a composition, is given to newly admitted students at the beginning of each semester and to all students at the end of each semester.
To provide a basis for an ESL course design for Vietnamese students at the AEC, it was first necessary to obtain information concerning their enrollment and placement in the program. To obtain this information, the following three objectives were carried out:
(1) The first objective was to identify and report the total number of Vietnamese students enrolled and the number of ESL courses which they completed during each semester of the study, from January of 1982 to December of 1985.
| YEAR | SEMESTER | TOTAL NUMBER OF VIETNAMESE STUDENTS ENROLLED | TOTAL NUMBER OF ESL COURSES COMPLETED |
| 1982 | Spring | 2 | 5 |
| Summer | 2 | 5 | |
| Fall | 4 | 8 | |
| 1983 | Spring | 5 | 7 |
| Summer | 0 | 0 | |
| Fall | 2 | 6 | |
| 1984 | Spring | 5 | 12 |
| Summer | 3 | 5 | |
| Fall | 7 | 17 | |
| 1985 | Spring | 6 | 14 |
| Summer | 0 | 0 | |
| Fall | 6 | 9 | |
| 85 courses |
Twenty-three Vietnamese students completed eighty-five ESL courses during the period under study. Of these courses, forty were completed during fall semesters, thirty-eight in spring semesters and seven during summer sessions. During two of the summer sessions, there were no Vietnamese students in attendance, suggesting that the proposed course will be most important during fall and spring semesters.
(2) The second objective was to identify and report which ESL courses Vietnamese students completed during the period of the study, regardless of the semester.
| English Structure | Speaking and Understanding | Writing | Reading | |
| Elementary | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Intermediate | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Advanced I | 12 | 5 | 10 | 7 |
| Advanced II | 6 | 1 | 15 | 11 |
| Special Studies in Applied English (009) | 10 | |||
| Special Studies in Advanced Writing (054) | 4 |
An analysis of the data indicates that of the eighty-five courses completed, 0 (0%) were Elementary, 4 (5%) were Intermediate, 34 (40%) were Advanced I and 47 (55%) were Advanced II level courses, either in regular classroom instruction or in 009-Special Studies in Applied English or 054-Special Studies in Advanced Writing. Taking into consideration the courses taken at all levels, seven were Speaking and Understanding, nineteen were English Structure, nineteen were Reading and forty (47%) were Writing courses. The highest concentration of Vietnamese students has been at the Advanced II level with the largest placement in writing courses at this level. Course descriptions for these three courses follow.
| AEC 044 | ADVANCED WRITING II (4) U. Spelling and use of specialized vocabulary; critical and interpretive writing; research methods: outlining, referencing, note-taking, library use; free writing. |
| AEC 009 | SPECIAL STUDIES IN APPLIED ENGLISH (1-6) U. Individualized program of instruction in one or more skills at appropriate level. |
| AEC 054 | SPECIAL STUDIES IN ADVANCED WRITING (4) U. Textbook instruction and structured practice in the skills and techniques of academic writing: planning, paragraph and theme structure, vocabulary and grammar usage, and mechanics; detailed evaluation of submitted work; individualized remedial work in student's areas of weakness. Open only to students who have received a grade of A or B in AEC 044 but who have not yet attained full academic proficiency in written English (Soppelsa, 1983). |
Students in AEC 044 receive regular classroom instruction, while students in AEC 009 may be taught one-on-one with an instructor or in a small group. Students in AEC 054 meet with the instructor for periodic conferences. Correction of written work in this course is currently done with the use of a tape recorder and comments and types of errors are tabulated on a computer, so that a written report can be provided to each student for each assignment.
(3) The third objective was to determine the amount of time Advanced II writing students spent at this level completing all required ESL courses, enabling them to enroll as full-time university students. A total of nineteen students took the twenty-nine Advanced II writing courses with fifteen in regular classroom instruction, ten in 009 and four in 054. Sixteen students have at this time completed their ESL requirements.
Of these sixteen students, ten finished their requirements in one semester. Three of these had regular classroom instruction and seven were enrolled in 009 or 054. The other six students completed their ESL requirements in two semesters. One had two semesters of classroom instruction and five had one semester of classroom instruction followed by one semester of 009 or 054.
Four of these sixteen students were enrolled in regular classroom instruction the semester they completed their ESL requirements, whereas twelve were enrolled in a special course during that semester. A majority of these students appear to have had their writing needs best met outside of regular AEC classroom instruction. It is also interesting to note that of these sixteen students who completed their ESL requirements, three were noted as having "weak writing" on their records when they finished. Two of these students had been enrolled in regular classroom instruction and one had been enrolled in 009.
The total percentage of Vietnamese students in the AEC is not great. However, they have shown consistent enrollment during the period of the study. They were predominantly enrolled in spring and fall semesters and all but one were initially placed at an advanced level. Overall, the largest enrollment was in writing classes with the largest number of students in Advanced II writing classes. A majority of these benefited from instruction outside of the regular classroom setting. This information will be considered in the course design.
Background | Purpose of Study | Outline of Research | Review of the Literature |
Assessment of Writing Samples | Course Design | Conclusion and References
Table of Contents for Issue 1 | Front Cover of the Journal of English Grammar on the Web