ESL Partnerships
Because multilingual students often face language barriers in GE (general education) and CTE (career
and technical education) courses, the ESL Department has formed partnerships with several other
departments on campus. The ESL Department Chair and the Partnerships Coordinator meet with other
departments to assess the language-learning needs of their multilingual students and design
interventions and support services, including workshops, tutoring, classroom visits, and presentations.
After several semesters of meeting with students in GE and CTE programs, the ESL Partnerships
Coordinator analyzed the reading and writing demands and challenges for multilingual students. She
brought several recommendations to the ESL Credit Curriculum Committee:

Teach vocabulary: The more general, sub-technical words give students more difficulty than the
discipline specific words. So, for example, discipline specific words such as arachnoid, electron
and macro outcomes are not likely to present as many problems for students to learn to use
correctly as words like prominent, attain, pursue, global.
•
Practice reading textbooks: Provide instruction in both the language skills and study skills that
will prepare students for the academic tasks they will face in content classes.
•
Teach metacognitive skills: Students who continually check their comprehension by using the
built-in redundancy of textbook features, e.g. highlighted concepts and definitions, will know
when they need to stop, review or re-read, or when they can afford to read more quickly.
•
Assign extensive reading: Students need to interact with a variety of texts to improve reading
rate, comprehension, and vocabulary.
•
Integrate reading and writing: Design activities that require students to use the target
vocabulary as they write about what they have read. Integrate speaking and listening activities
when possible.
•
Apply academic concepts in writing assignments: Concepts can be applied to students’ own
lives or to other contexts.
•
Maintain high standards for reading comprehension, as demonstrated in reading tests and
written work. Ask students to revise written work with errors in fact or logic.
•
Teach basic research skills or arrange for library workshops: Students need to learn to use
periodical databases and document sources.
The ESL Credit Curriculum Committee incorporated some of these suggestions in the course outlines
when appropriate. Course outline revisions include the assignment of academic textbooks in reading
materials and the assignment of extensive reading. Writing assignments will include the application of
academic concepts and reduce the emphasis on argumentation.
Laura Walsh, ESL Department
October 1, 2012