Fall 2020 Virtual Events

Though ESL and English have long been seen as two very separate disciplines, viewing the same students’ writing across multiple semesters reveals that students’ English can and does develop as they tackle the challenges of college-level coursework. Following a close examination of selected students’ work, the presenters will share inclusive practices to students from varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds in composition courses.

The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) and the Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) team will be co-presenting on the landscape of English as a Second Language (ESL) programs in the California Community College system, with a focus on the variations in ESL pathways statewide and an exploration of pathways that help maximize throughput for different ESL student groups.

ESL instructors sometimes avoid difficult topics like race, civil rights, or immigration in the beginning ESL classroom out of concern that the language of those topics might be too "advanced.” However, our students engage with such difficult topics on a daily basis, so early exposure to, and practice with, that language may benefit them. The presenters will share approaches to discussing complicated issues in beginning ESL classrooms with examples from their classrooms.

Statewide research shows that English language learners who graduated from a U.S. high school are at least twice as likely to complete transfer-level English if they enroll in the course directly rather than taking a stand-alone ESL class. However, those students often benefit from support in English language conventions and cultural context. To address this, colleges across California are designating specific sections of transfer-level English for ESL students. Learn about these programs at two colleges and strategies to address the writing and language needs of ESL writers in the transfer-level English classroom.