Question:
find it difficult to get the English department faculty to accept that
ESL students will always write with an accent. Where they are willing to
accept native English speakers' errors in composition, they overreact to
minor ESL errors. I teach ESL writing and freshman composition for native
speakers at a community college. When the new exit exams were initiated
for composition classes, the English faculty have consistently failed
every ESL student for two years now. I get along very well with the
English faculty but have run up against a brick wall here.
Answer:
Well, one problem is that an accent is verbal, how can one write with an
accent without misspelling English words? Correct spelling is an important
part of composition.
As far as the test is concerned, it appears to have been shown to be an
invalid indicator of the ESL ability of the ESL students. You should demand
to review the documents that established the validity and reliability of the
test. Two good books on testing are listed below.
It appears that there may be quite a bit of bias in the test. What is the
general attitude of the faculty towards the ESL students?
If the test is shown to be unbiased, valid, and reliable, then your teaching
methods may need to be reviewed along with the entrance requirements.
Perhaps your school needs to require a higher level of English proficiency
for admittance. Is the TOEFL required? What minimum score?
There are many things to bee looked at. But having a minimum standard is
not bad or wrong, unless such standard is unrealistic or discriminatory.
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