Equipping Hispanic Immigrants for an

Effective Social IntegrationErnesto De la Hoz

ESL & Foreign Languages DepartmentMiami Dade College

Innovations Conference 2012Philadelphia, PA – March 4-7, 2012

Presentation Abstract

This session presents the plans for recruitment and retention of immigrant students with strong academic backgrounds and the design of a specialized curriculum created to serve this population. This model has been named Project ACE.Also, the presenters will explain methods of program evaluation used to determine the effectiveness of the model.

Agenda1. How are you doing?2. Title V – Project ACE3. Recruitment, Retention and Service Plan4. Content-based, Corpus-Informed

Instruction 5. Strategies for curriculum and faculty

development

Background of Title V-Project ACE

1. Help students with strong academic backgrounds to learn English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in an efficient and effective way

2. Increase retention and matriculation rates of EAP students

3. Enhance collaboration4. Disseminate research findings and

curricular practices to other campuses and colleges

Title V-Project ACE

ACE stands for Accelerated Content-based English Program for EAP (English for Academic Purposes) at Miami Dade College

Year 4 of $1.9 million dollar grant from the US DOE

Two activities• Create accelerated curriculum• Document outcomes

Review of the Literature

High level of literacy in L1 predicts ease of learning L2.

Programmatic isolation and unrelated coursework decrease motivation.

Content-based instruction promotes efficient language learning.

Immigration trends indicate need.

Profile of Current ACE students

Profile of Current ACE students

Female Male0

10203040506070 73% (249)

27% (126)

Project ACE 2009-1 to 2011-1 percentage of students by gender

Perc

enta

ge o

f stu

dent

s

Total number of students=375

Profile of Current ACE students

Arabic

Creole

Creole/

F...

French

Portu

g...

Russian

Span

ish

Turki

sh0

102030405060708090

0.8% (3)8.0% (24)

3.7% (14) 1.0% (3) 1.3% (5) 0.7% (2)

80.8% (303)

0.3% (1)

Project ACE 2009-1 to 2011-1 percentage of students by native language

Perc

enta

ge o

f na

tive

lang

uage

s re

port

ed b

y st

uden

ts

Total number of students=375

ArgentinaBrazilChina

ColombiaCuba

Dominican RepublicEcuador

HaitiHonduras

MexicoNicaragua

PeruVenezuela

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

2.92.92.9

8.848.5

2.91.5

10.31.51.5

7.42.9

6

Countries of Origin

Percent

Profile of Current ACE students

Profile of Current ACE students

AS BA BS Certification College Doctorate HS JD MD Some College0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1.0% (3)6.6% (25)

2.0% (6) 0.5% (1) 0.7% (2) 1.3% (4)

70.4% (264)

0.3% (1) 1.3% (5)7.4% (28)

Project ACE 2009-1 to 2011-1 percentage of students by level of education prior to the program

Perc

enta

ge o

f st

uden

ts

Total number of students=375

Outreach Advertisement

Learning how to reach foreign professionals Liaisons

Consulates Chambers of Commerce Professional Associations School Boards

Community Restaurants and Bars Sports leagues

Facilitating Access: Stories behind the data

Documents Issues 16%Job/Family Schedule 15%Unknown 5%Financial Issues 4%Overqualified 1%Enroll in ACE 37%Enroll in regular EAP 22%

Most frequent obstacles to access higher education

Facilitating Access: Stories behind the data

Document IssuesImmigration StatusFCAT vs. CPT

Job/ Family ScheduleHealth and familyWorking 9 to 5 x 2

Financial IssuesFAFSA and unemployment statusFAFSA and foreign professionals

Facilitating Access: Stories behind the data

Promohttp://prezi.com/5kgacxqbjbm6/project-ace/

Retention

Cohort N %

2009-1 55 100%

2009-2 34 61.80%

2009-3 31 56.40%2010-1 30 54.50%

2010-2 27 49.09%

Cohort N %

2009-2 50 100.00%

2009-3 27 54.00%2010-1 40 80.00%2010-2

38 77.00%

Content-Based InstructionMore than just a hunch…

Instruction can no longer be based on mere assumptions.

These assumptions must be tested.

Corpus work assures that what we are teaching in our “natural reserves” is what is happening out in the “wild.”

Cute!

Scary!

Content-Based Instruction

What is content-based instruction? Learning about something, while learning a language

Why used content-based instruction? Language teaching and learning has no natural

content. Research shows that learning through sustained

content helps students by recycling vocabulary and ideas.

Students are better able to expand on the content and negotiate meaning when the context is consistent.

Content-Based Instruction

Content-based instruction and EAP are natural partners. Students are preparing for academic

careers. Teaching language through content

gives students repeated exposure to academic topics and language.

Corpus-Informed instruction What is corpus-informed instruction?

Teaching with authentic language selected from a large corpus

Corpus = “body” Written materials (textbook chapters, syllabi,

handouts, web-sites) Transcriptions of class discourse (lectures ,

questions , discussion ) Corpus linguistics

Step 1: Using computers to analyze the “body of materials”

Step 2: Analyzing the results to see language frequency patterns

Corpus-Informed instruction

Why use corpus-based instruction?

To design a syllabus based on word frequencies and student needs

To create materials and activities based on real examples of language as it is used in different contexts

To teach students to conduct their own investigations based on specific language needs, purposes, or problems

Corpus Collection Process Conducted from March-June 2009 Language samples from general

education classes CLP 1006 – Psychology of Personal

Effectiveness HUM 1020 – Humanities BSC 1005 – General Education Biology ENC 1101 – Freshman Composition

Survey of general education faculty

Sample Corpus Finding

How many words are found in the psychology text used in CLP 1006?

200,000

Vocabulary Knowledge and Academic Performance

Words matter. Efficient readers have a vocabulary

of at least 20,000 words. Vocabulary words have their own

grammar. Knowing a word means knowing its

meaning and use.

Project ACE Spoken Corpus

Discipline Number of words

Biology 28,262Psychology 25, 365English 1101 43,498Humanities 36, 984Total 134, 109

Project ACE spoken corpus

Word Frequency

1. the 56552. you 44363. to 35504. that 33165. and 31876. of 26867. a 26328. is 21369. it 185310. so 1822

10 most frequent words in the corpus

Project ACE spoken corpus

Cluster Frequency1. a lot of 1122. you have to 973. you want to 934. a little bit 765. are going to 726. we’re going to 717. going to be 708. I’m going to 689. I want to 6610. you’re going to 63

10 most frequent multi-word clusters

Project ACE spoken corpus

Word Frequency1. Right 14102. Know 9263. Like 5974. Say 4535. See 4456. People 4327. Want 3908. Think 3519. Go 35010. Good 303

10 most frequent content words

Differences between courses

Humanities and Biology Lecture format Not highly interactive

What does this mean for students? Professors ask questions and often

answer themselves. Key content words are not frequently

repeated. Frequent use of discourse organizers to

signal a topic change or important information

Differences between courses

Psychology and Freshman Composition More interactive ▪ Class discussions, group work, presentations▪ Psychology blends lectures in as well

What does this mean for students? Stronger need to participate Be able to answer questions

Top 10 content words in ENC 1101

Word Freq Concordance exampleLogic 145 I’m going to ask you to analyze the logic of each

statement.Essay 92 We’re actually going to write a persuasive essay,

but not just that, we’re going to debate an issue, together in class

Argument 89 So what I want to do is I want I want to give you some principles for how you make somebody believe you. Right? eh uh h- how you can be persuasive, you know. We call this an argument. An argument does not mean a fight. It doesn't mean screaming at each other, it doesn't mean fighting. It doesn't mean, in in the sense that we're talking about, an argument is a persuasion.

Debate 65 You know, and there's and there's a good argument on either side. If there was not a good argument on either side it would not be a debate

Point 55 Which is what you do in the body, you develop the main point. That point is going to have different parts, right?

Findings: Academic Language in Project ACE written corpus

Findings: Academic Language in Project ACE written corpus

•For these four courses combined, students are expected to read approximately ____________ words in the semester.

•The total of 770,000 is created by the recycling of 29,000 different individual words.

• The words ‘the” and “of” make up 10% of all the words in the written materials in ACE.

Project ACE written corpus• Some of the 29,000 are used frequently such as

life, time, people, art , cells.

• Almost half of these 29,000 are used infrequently.

• 4,100 words are only used twice, and 10,000 words are used just one time.

• Many words come in two or more word sets that have to be learned and used together: self-esteem, at the end of, at the same time

Strategies for Learning

Students need to: have strategies for sorting out the essential

from the rest because they are handling 100,000’s of words and phrases.

recognize that some words are in set phrases and that certain set terms are used for basic concepts.

have strategies to handle these different language genres even in a single source such as their textbooks.

know the different names for academic tasks (research paper vs reaction or reflection paper, an online academic journal vs. an online journal entry)

Strategies for Teaching

Learning Communities: When possible, couch EAP within a greater Gen Ed context

Performance and task-based instruction: What can they now do?

Technology: Use those tools that will bring language to life

Let’s get real: Use authentic samples and select topics accordingly (traditional grammar lessons vs. corpus-based lessons)

Strategies for Managing Change

Provide professional development for faculty and staff

Get innovator buy-in Support transitions in increments Plan for replication Expect backsliding

ACE Students in Action

39

Thank you!

Ernesto De la HozESL & Foreign Languages Department

Miami Dade College

edelahoz@mdc.edu