An English as a Second Language Department Values Statement

Five primary values...

1 The measure of any civilization is the way it treats its weakest members. Douglas College ESL empowers new Canadians with language. Language is power.

2 Lasting peace is not simply the absence of war. It is rather the recognition that there is a global interdependence of peoples sharing a common planet and working together for the common good. A common language learned in the context of these values, is a powerful tool.

3 Justice is a level playing field. Equal access to the languages of power, is an essential element.

4 Language is best learned under the guidance of an able instructor, expert not only in the language itself but also in linguistics and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

5 Scholarship, to be reliable, must be rooted in evidence.

Jonathan - for the ESL Department

Accountable Time

There exists a lot of urban legend around accountable time. Like me, you may have heard a variety of lore on the topic. Since accountable time is a central feature of our contract with the college, the only reliable source on the subject is our collective agreement. What follows elaborates on a few terse lines of that document.

Regular faculty members are employed for twelve months per year, two of which are a vacation period. The term, “accountable time” refers to the ten months of the year remaining after the two months of vacation have been taken.

One of the ten months of accountable time is “professional and curriculum development” time. The remaining nine months of accountable time includes "such activities as
teaching, the counselling of students, and participation on committees.”

Regular faculty members are accountable to request the dates of their vacation months and the dates and activities included in their remaining ten months. They do this by way of a Faculty PD/Vacation form available on the Employee Relations web page and submitted to their Coordinator before the first day of the Fall Semester each year.

Though regular faculty members often spend their time outside of vacation, PD and teaching at their own discretion, it is understood that they are accountable to do college work thirty-five-hours-per-week, ten-months-per-year excluding statutory holidays. The college can and sometimes does require faculty to perform teaching and other college duties during times that have not been requested and approved as vacation or PD/curriculum development.

For contract faculty members, accountable time is the time it takes to perform the duties specified in their contract.

Source: Article 8 - Collective Agreement Between Douglas College and Douglas College Faculty Association, April 1, 2007 – March 31, 2010

ESL In Context: The Numbers Tell a Story

Part IV, last in a Series - ESL Student Success

Q: What is the student success rate in ESL?
A: 81% of students who were enrolled at the end of their course receive Mastery in the 2008-2009 year. 71% of all students who enrolled at the beginning of their course received Mastery from 2005 to present.

Q: How does this success rate compare to that overall rate at Douglas College?
A: ESL 71% Overall 82% There is quite a range of success rates in the college. Nursing, another large program in the college, has a success rate of 97%. Habitat Restoration and Health Information Management both rate 100%. English's success rate is 77%.

Q: Does ESL Have any courses with low success rates?
A: Courses with average success rates since 2004 of less than 70% are EASL 0260 at 65% and 0360 at 64%. Some single-section courses also have success rates of less than 70%, but the number of students taking them is very small.

Q: How do the ESL success rates compare from year to year?
A: They Range from 70-74%

Q: What about rates of withdrawal? How does ESL compare with the college as a whole in withdrawal rates?
A: The withdrawal rate for the college is 9.62% compared to ESL's rate of 7.85%. So fewer students withdraw from ESL courses than other courses in the college. This is true for every year since 2004.

ESL in Context: The Numbers Tell a Story

Part III in a Series - Domestic / International Balance

This brief Q & A provides the answer to the question in the last poll, at least it does for the last complete academic year.

Q: What is the balance between international and domestic students in the ESL Department?
A: It has historically been about half and half. In the academic year 2008-2009, ESL enrolled an average of 208 international and 215 domestic students each of the three semesters. That's 49% international and 51% domestic.

ESL in Context: The Numbers Tell a Story

Part II in a Series - Subsequent Enrolment

Q: What do domestic and international ESL students do after their ESL courses.
A: In 2008-2009 58% of domestic and 73% of international students continued to take ESL and a variety of other courses at Douglas College.

Q: Which courses did they take?
A: After Winter Semester 2009, just a year ago, here is what they took...

Domestic Course Regs Int Course Regs
NO COURSE 76 NO COURSE 89
EASL-0360 40 EASL-0460 44
EASL-0460 35 EASL-0360 37
EASL-0260 32 CSIS-1110 37
EASL-0350 22 PHIL-1101 33
EASL-0250 14 EASL-0350 29
ENGL-1130 11 ECON-1150 23
EASL-0450 10 ACCT-1110 22
ACCT-1110 8 ENGL-1130 22
CSIS-1110 8 MATH-1125 21
EASL-0375 7 EASL-0260 19
EASL-0365 7 PSYC-1100 17
PSYC-1100 7 CRIM-1100 14
EASL-0635 6 EASL-0250 12
ECON-1150 6 BUSN-1210 12
FINC-1231 5 CSIS-2200 10
BUSN-1210 5 FINC-1231 9
ACCT-1210 4 MARK-1120 9
CRIM-1100 4 MODL-1171 9
PHIL-1101 4 MATH-1120 8
CSIS-2200 3 MATH-1110 8
DVST-0411 3 EASL-0365 6
ECED-1121 3 ACCT-1210 6
APSC-1110 3 BUSN-2429 6
MATH-1125 3 EASL-0375 6
ECED-1122 3 ECON-1250 5
MUSC-1151 3 HORM-1325 5
BUSN-1320 3 CMNS-1115 5
CHEM-1210 3 HORM-1145 5
DVST-0410 2 BUSN-1320 5
BIOL-1103 2 MODL-1191 5
HCSW-1100 2 HORM-1115 5
HCSW-1140 2 EASL-0160 4
CFCS-1110 2 MATH-1220 4
SOCI-1125 2 CRIM-1150 4
HCSW-1120 2 BIOL-1110 4
PHYS-1104 2 CMNS-1104 3
ACCT-1222 2 CHEM-1108 3
POLI-1102 2 GEOG-1110 3
MODL-2271 2 PSYC-1200 3
ENGL-1099 2 ANTH-1100 3
HCSW-1130 2 SPSC-1192 3
HCSW-1150 2 BUSN-1198 3
ECED-1100 2 SOSC-2140 3
OADM-1256 2 HORM-1420 3
BUSN-1198 2 ECON-1101 3
CMNS-1115 2 MODL-1101 3
CMNS-1216 2 HORM-2310 2
CMNS-1110 2 MATH-1101 2
MATH-1120 2 ENGL-1106 2
HCSW-1110 2 MATH-1191 2
CFCS-1121 2 PEFA-1116 2
HORM-1115 1 PHYS-1110 2
CMNS-1104 1 EASL-0450 2
OADM-1240 1 SOCI-1125 2
HIST-1103 1 BIOL-1210 2
MUSC-2311 1 HORM-2330 2
DVST-0355 1 CHEM-1110 2
MUSC-1102 1 APSC-1110 2
MUSC-1230 1 HORM-2415 2
MUSC-1156 1 MODL-1151 2
OADM-1245 1 CHEM-1210 2
ACCT-1235 1 EASL-0345 2
SPSC-1105 1 HORM-2445 2
MUSC-1111 1 MODL-1192 2
HIST-1114 1 ENGL-1099 2
MUSC-1121 1 PSYC-2301 1
MUSC-1120 1 SPSC-1313 1
MUSC-1141 1 ANTH-1112 1
OADM-1238 1 HORM-1120 1
MATH-1191 1 PSYC-2315 1
BIOL-1209 1 BUSN-3350 1
MUSC-2320 1 HORM-2240 1
BUSN-2429 1 HIST-1104 1
MODL-1171 1 MATH-1105 1
MATH-1101 1 GEOL-1120 1
CHEM-1110 1 POLI-1102 1
OADM-1103 1 CHEM-1104 1
MUSC-2310 1 MARK-2150 1
MATH-1220 1 GEOG-1160 1
ENGL-1106 1 CSIS-1175 1
ENGL-1102 1 PHIL-1103 1
MODL-1192 1 ENGL-1102 1
DVST-0455 1 GEOG-1100 1
MUSC-1160 1 PEFA-1102 1
DVST-0210 1 BIOL-1109 1
MARK-1120 1 ASTR-1105 1
PHYS-1170 1 PSYC-1110 1
BUSN-2252 1 PHYS-1104 1
CSIS-1175 1 DVST-0411 1
GEOL-1200 1 CMNS-1105 1
CHEM-1108 1 SPSC-1105 1
SOSC-2140 1 HIST-1103 1
GEOG-1120 1 ACCT-1235 1
HORM-1145 1 POLI-1101 1
PHYS-1110 1 MODL-2291 1
HORM-1325 1 FINC-2210 1
MUSC-1203 1 PHYS-1107 1
GEOG-1100 1
HORM-1420 1
MUSC-1103 1
EASL-0345 1
DOPT-1100 1
ECON-1250 1
MUSC-2350 1
EASL-0160 1
SOCI-1145 1
MUSC-1150 1
MUSC-1110 1
DOPT-1112 1
MODL-1101 1
WSGR-1100 1
EASL-0150 1
MODL-1191 1
ACCT-2320 1
Though they are not separated, these are two columns, one for domestic students and the other for international, each showing the course registrations made after our ESL students completed their Winter 2009 Semester.

ESL in Context: The Numbers Tell a Story

Part I in a series - Enrollment Q & A

ESL Enrollment

Q: How many students enroll in ESL courses at Douglas College?
A: In the last complete academic year, 2008-2009, the average number of students enrolled was 423.

Q: How many students do we have right now?
A: We currently have 807 course registrations, which means a minimum of 404 students.

Q: How many sections are running this Winter 2010 Semester?
A: 43 sections.

Q: How does our present enrollment compare to that of previous years?
A: It is lower than 2004/2005, when we had more than 485 each semester, but rising each year after that.

Q: Is ESL the largest department in the college?
A: Possibly so. In terms of course registrations divided by the number of courses a full-time student normally takes, ESL has consistently had the largest student full-time equivalent (FTE) in the college since 2004. This is a rough, unofficial estimate of FTE.

Q: What is total college enrollment?
A: In 2008-2009 there were 66,421 course registrations. If full-time students take an average of eight 3-credit courses per year, that's 8,303 FTE students. This is also a rough, unofficial estimate of FTE. Taking into account part-time students, the actual enrollment at Douglas is about 14,000.

Q: What percentage of the college's enrollment is ESL?
A: It is between 6 and 7%. In the 2004-2005 year it was 9%.

Q: How does this percentage compare to that of other large departments?
A: Psychology enrolls 6% and Nursing 5%.

Do these statistics raise other questions? Ask them in a comment to this post.

Next post: Subsequent Enrollment: Where do students go after taking ESL courses?

An Influx of Domestic English Language Studies Students?

An Influx of Domestic English Language Studies Students?

Wouldn’t it be great if we had the same substantive increase in the numbers of domestic ESL students as we have had in international? This idea may not be so far-fetched as it sounds according to representatives of the Coquitlam and Burnaby School Districts that I met with last week. Apparently there are hundreds of international and domestic ESL students in these two large districts who will either not complete high school or graduate with English and Socials marks too low for college or university entrance. Many of these students plan to attend college and/or university and need language upgrading to continue their studies. So they are ideally suited to English language study at Douglas.

I met with ESL heads in both Coquitlam and Burnaby last week to begin opening up clear pathways for these students to Douglas College ESL. The first step is to make sure ESL teachers and counselors have complete and up-to-date information about our programs. The challenge these teachers and counselors face when advising students to come our way is that, despite our snappy motto, “You can go anywhere from here,” foreign-born parents and their high school-aged children often have difficulty seeing the connection between Douglas College and UBC Medical/Engineering/Business/Law School, from whence they want to graduate ASAP.

Extending the reach of our programs to more domestic students is possible if we work on communication with high school students and their parents and add appropriate course options. We need to hold meetings in the high schools in which we explain academic prep. ESL, university transfer courses and the pathway to the desired university qualifications. The most powerful approach will be to bring our former students who are now studying in university. If you are in touch with any of these people, please let me know. I am also interested in hearing from instructors who would like to be involved in these information sessions in high schools.

Another essential part of the pathway from high school ESL to our department is the perception of academic and career advancement. Since high school ESL students have usually taken ESL for many years and see it as a barrier to their academic progress, they are more likely to continue their language learning in adjunct course opportunities like Early Business. In these settings they can make progress on their desired field of study while continuing to upgrade their language skills. Catherine Humphries, Program Consultant for English Language Learners in the Burnaby School District, assures us that program and course offerings that make learners and their parents feel like they are making progress toward their (non-linguistic) academic goals will be very attractive to high school ESL students.

Accountable Time Opportunities

1. Telephone interviews - Are you good at doing assessment interviews? There is an opportunity to spend 2-3 hours on the afternoons of February 1 and 2 interviewing students in Asia by phone.

2. Community ESL Options Update – We need someone to scour the internet for ESL programs in the communities surrounding our campuses. We use this list to refer students who are too late to find seats in our programs. It is also information that we all should know.

New Grading System for EASL 0460 – Q&A

Q: Can we assume that the grades and corresponding percentages for EASL 0460 will be the same as for any other graded courses?
DC Policies - Grading: http://www.douglas.bc.ca/about/policies/edu/grading.html
A: Yes

Q: The pre-requisite for ENGL and CMNS courses is EASL 0460 with a grade of "C-" or better, so if an EASL 0460 student gets 55% to 59%, the student meets the pre-requisite for ENGL/CMNS, right?
A: Right.

Q: How can we best explain to students about the difference between needing 70% to achieve MAS for progression in all other ESL courses, but only needing 55% to 59% for EASL 0460 to progress to ENGL & CMNS? I assume that the marking in EASL 0460 will be different than in the past, but I'm not sure how to explain it.
A: First, explain EASL 0460 grading in terms of what a student has to learn. The reading and writing skills that a student has to learn to pass EASL 0460 and get into ENGL and CMNS courses remains exactly the same. In the Mastery System, the minimum requirement was recorded as 70%. Now EASL 0460 uses the same grade system as ENGL and CMNS, which records the minimum pass as 55%. So yes, the grading in EASL 0460 will use different numbers than it did before.

Q: Will the grade for EASL 0460 be calculated into a student's GPA?
A: Yes. All letter grades a student earns are calculated into the Douglas College GPA. Transfer GPA is calculated by the receiving institution and does not include non-transferrable courses.

The Lost Forty

What would the ESL faculty members have to say about students with EASL 0360 EXP and 0450 MAS taking selected UT courses?
My answer in the January 15 meeting was, “I think they would be concerned about high failure rates because of these students’ low reading and writing levels.” However, I just checked the poll of your opinions and I see that the sixteen of you who voted were unanimously in favor of allowing these students to take the selected low-reading/writing-intensive U/T courses.

So what are we going to do about it? Tom and I will be meeting with deans in UT faculties and working to identify appropriate courses.