By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Fort Hays State University is seeking to revamp its services for English as a Second Language students, as it has seen some struggle in the last year.
"This last year, there were a couple of students who really struggled who did come from our partner location. They met our admission requirements, but when they got here, their language learning was not as high as it needed to be for them to succeed," said Jeni McRay, assistant provost of internationalization and strategic initiatives
"So we provided a lot of wrap-around services for those individuals," she said.
No on-campus ESL
The university had an in-house ESL program but decided to suspend it after the 2020-21 academic year due to low enrollment.
FHSU outsourced ESL services with The Language Company in 2022. However, the company asked to withdraw from the contract in March 2023 due to low enrollment. Services were offered online only.
McRay said the university had hoped The Language Company's broader services could be used as a recruiting tool. However, that recruiting effort was not successful.
About 4,000 international students are enrolled at FHSU through either Pathways or Cross-border programs. Pathway students start their studies overseas, usually transfer to Hays and study on campus after completing their sophomore year.
Cross-border students study on-site at partner campuses or through FHSU Online.
Because the on-campus ESL contract with The Language Company was terminated in March 2023, during the 2023-24 academic year, the university relied on services from the college's Writing Center, the Academic Success Program and the International Seminar class.
"We do not have enough students studying on campus at Hays to support an intensive ESL program on campus, but generally speaking, there are a variety of options to supplement the plethora of services and models that currently exist," McRay said.
Although both the Writing Center and the Academic Success Program offer assistance and tutoring to all students, McRay said she did not think the extra help they are being called to offer ESL students is a burden.
She expressed some concern for faculty members.
"When we had four students who were struggling last year, it is frustrating for the faculty members who have those students enrolled in their classes," McRay said. "It does create a little bit of extra stress in those classes, especially if they don't understand how to help them."
McRay said the university is taking extra steps to ensure faculty members do not experience stress.
Chinese students struggle
McRay said most of the students who need ESL services are in FHSU's Chinese programs. Students from the university's partnerships with African and Cambodian institutions have been exposed to enough English before FHSU admission that ESL is unnecessary.
Those students who have been struggling were told they should attempt to cut their class loads, and FHSU had a Chinese-speaking visiting scholar meet with them.
She said the Chinese students seem to have more exposure to written English but struggle with speaking and understanding spoken English, and that is not necessarily being identified in the admissions process.
"We have identified some issues. That is why we have that long list of things we are going to be able to do, and we took a much more comprehensive view of it," McRay said.
"It's not just students who might need an ESL class or two in order to meet admission requirements or transition in their first semester or two. Sometimes we have students who have needs that go beyond that immediate couple of semesters."
Moving forward
In the summer 2023, Shenyang Normal University in China began conducting oral interview screening for applicants to FHSU.
Under the leadership of Brett Whitaker and Kaley Klaus, FHSU faculty and staff were trained and organized to conduct more than 1,000 online interviews in July and August. Of these initial candidates, 99 were eventually admitted.
"It is hoped that this opportunity can be leveraged to both better select students in the first place, as well as to diagnose and prescribe individual developmental plans for them right from the outset of their academic program," McRay said.
Moving forward, the university will continue to offer interventions that are customized to their partnership students either at the “home” location and/or supplemented with The Language Company online services, McRay said.
This will include reviews of admissions standards.
"We went back to the partner location and said something happened here," McRay said. "These students were not prepared enough to come and transfer and have classes.
"How did that happen? How can we prevent it from happening again, and what do we need to do to better support the [students]?"
The university has hired Sharon Graham, English professor, as a cross-border education specialist. She is at Sias University in China, teaching orientation courses and assessing students' English listening and speaking skills. She is also working with Chinese instructors who are teaching English to incoming students.
FHSU also plans to:
• Hire ESL-trained tutors to work with international students
• Outsource to a new ESL provider
• Ensure that the Writing Center has ESL-trained staff
• Increase entrance requirements to admit only those whose ESL skills are advanced enough to not need additional support
• Further train FHSU faculty in understanding cultural differences
• Increase opportunities for practicing listening/speaking oral English through activities outside the classroom
"Our No. 1 concern is to make sure whoever does end up in classes on campus in Hays is able to be successful," McRay said. "We are going to do everything we can to identify who those students are and what kind of interventions they need, and then provide them with whatever services they need to be successful."
Although much of the focus will be shifting to preparing students for taking classes in English before they arrive in Hays, McRay said there are still issues with the courses being taught in China.
McRay acknowledges that studying English with a Chinese instructor who has a Chinese accent while immersed in Chinese culture is different from studying English with an American instructor immersed in American culture.
"Our relationship with those partners is to ensure that whatever the academic preparation or English preparation is on their end is there before they come into FHSU classes," McRay said.
"It doesn't mean there aren't challenges. There are challenges," McRay said.