Business English for international graduate students: A survey of ESL 505
The purpose of the English as a Second Language (ESL) service courses at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) is to provide appropriate English instruction according to international students' academic needs. These courses are taught at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. ESL 505 is one of these service courses and was specifically designed for international students in the Masters of Science in Accounting (MSA), Masters of Science in Business Administration (MSBA) and Masters of Science in Finance (MSF) programs. In order to ensure that ESL 505 is a positive experience, a periodic review of the goals, objectives and output of the course is recommended. Therefore, the goal of this study is to answer two research questions: first, was the ESL 505 curriculum targeting the English skills students need to succeed in their respective programs, and second, were ESL 505 students learning the skills set out by the curriculum? Through surveys and interviews with students, content professors, administrators-­and teaching assistants, stakeholders' perceptions were documented, analyzed and compared to the current teaching methods and materials represented by student portfolios. The results of the analysis showed that the course would benefit from four modifications. These four modifications consist of incorporating more speaking activities in the course, increasing communication between the content professors and teaching assistants, creating a training binder for ESL 505 teaching assistants, and thoroughly updating the current teaching materials based on the activities of the content courses. The results of the portfolio analysis were inconclusive, as it could not be shown that that there was improvement in the students' writing skills. By studying the alignment of the English skills students need to succeed their respective programs with the current teaching methods and materials, it is hoped that ESL 505 will continue to be a valuable resource to the international business students at the University.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign