I have two students who English is a second language. The students are very nice and work very hard, but their English grammar and writing skills are poor. At times, their writing is difficult to understand. Both students are taking English Composition, but I can’t believe they were able to enroll in that course when their English skills are so poor.
I was told that our college does not require any English profanely like TOFEL. All that is required is a diploma indicating that the student has taken and passed English either from high school or a GED. A student does take a placement exam upon admission to my college. If the student does no pass the placement exam, she is placed in a college preparatory English course. Once a student passes that course with a grade of 90% or better, she may enroll in the English Composition course.
I am afraid that both of these students may not pass my Critical Thinking course. Throughout the semester, I have encouraged both of them to seek help from and the Tutoring Center. So far, neither one has followed through with my suggestions.
I am frustrated because I think someone has allowed these students to move forward without mastering the required concepts. There are many instructors who feel the best to do is to let the students “just pass”, rather than work on fixing the problem. It’s a disservice to the student and I believe it is unethical as an instructor.
What do you think? Is there anything else I should be doing here?
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- I am a college professor who is fumbling through the chaos of academia, rheumatoid arthritis, working on my PhD and just being a 40 something woman. I used to be a lawyer, which made me a snarky little person. I have a wonderful Husband and a German Shepherd named Junior. They help keep me sane.
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4 comments:
Well, I don't know what you can say other than to tell them that they run a serious risk of failing the class unless they seek help from the Tutoring Center. Nothing helps like brutal honesty.
However, you will then have a decision to make--if they make a good faith effort to work on their writing for the rest of the seemster, will you pass them? If they perceive that going to the Tutoring Center won't have an immediate pay-off in this class, they might continue to blow you off anyway.
I've faced this problem in the past. My question was one of being able to understand what their paper was trying to say. If their writing is bad enough to get in the way, then their grade goes down some more... if not, then I take off serious points for the poor writing and leave it there.
You have suggested the writing center, they have not made the effort to go there. If the writing itself is key to the class, it seems unfair to those who are poor writers for other reasons to give the foreign students a pass where you wouldn't give one to a native speaker whose writing was equally poor.
I've had this problem, too. We do have an English proficency exam, but they don't have to pass it to take a physics class. The students sometimes do OK in that class since it is heavily math based, and math is the same in all languages. However, my astronomy students who don't have good English skills are in a heap of difficulty. I suggest that they get help, but they don't always do so. Part of that is a pride thing for some of them (not willing to admit a need for help). For others, I am not sure why they don't seek assistance.
I agree, you should not be facing this problem, and you would not if instructors before you had not simply passed the students on without the required skills. This seems particularly bad here in the pre-college schools, and I imagine that it is the same there. The students get to college, and they are unable to perform. But, you don't do either them or later instructors any good by just passing them if they can't do the work satisfactorily.
I think you should ask yourself - if your class were a "job interview" and they were working for YOU when the class was done - if your grade determined hire/don't hire (pass/fail) or starting salary (B vs A) that came from YOUR budget - how would you grade? Would you give a charity grade then?
Because your (collective) classwork is whet they need as entre into the REAL world, I really don't think you'd be doing any favors.
Also telling - not for nothing but if it were me - I'd be paying RENT at the tutoring center, that's how much I'd be there. The tutors would be talking trash about me not showering - because I could be using that time learning English - thank you very much - and can always shower later.
And if I were the teacher and saw THAT level of dedication and a marked improvement - yeah - then I might favor the later higher grades a little atypically because I could feel they'd do the same for their "job" after my "interview".
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