Module 3: Helping Students Get Help

Take a few minutes to consider what you already know about our ESL offerings.

1. Southwest identifies ESL students when they apply for admission.

False. TBR rules prevent us from asking questions about a student's linguistic background when applying for admission. On one hand, this is very good because we don't want to be in the business of collecting data about marginalized groups when there is currently an administration targeting them. The drawback is that many students miss out on ESL services that might otherwise help them succeed. 

2. ESL students are automatically enrolled in ESL classes.

False. Students who indicate a need or a desire for help with their English are referred to ESL, but there are many situations where students enroll with no indication that they have a need for help. For example, a student who attended a US high school or earned US citizenship before coming to Southwest might simply apply, take the Accuplacer, and enroll without any discussion about language. Depending on how this process goes, it might be the first few weeks of class until the student or their teachers recognize that there is a need. 

3. Southwest has a fully developed ESL program, designed to take English language learners from beginning to college-level English. 

False. While Southwest offers 4 dedicated ESL classes, as well as ESL sections of ENGL 1010, ENGL 1020, ACAD 1100, and COMM 2025, it would be very difficult for any student to reach a high level of fluency with only 12 hours of instruction. Anyone who has taken the required 2 years of language in high school and 4 semesters in university could easily see that it takes much more. In fact, Second Language Acquisition (SLA) researchers generally recognize that it takes a couple of years of immersion for a student to gain conversational fluency, referred to as Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICs). This is contrasted to Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), the academic language proficiency needed to succeed in school, which is generally thought to take around 5-7 years in an immersive environment. 

BICS:

• Conversational, everyday, social language

• Fluency often takes 1-3 years

• BICS is essential for learners to acquire in order to feel comfortable and use socially appropriate language in a real-life situation

CALP:

• Language used in an academic setting for content purposes such as critical thinking and hypothesizing in math, science, history, etc.

• Is more monitored and corrected  than social language due to the significance it plays

• Learners need the chance to observe, listen, reflect, and speak about content concepts in real-life situations