Bunker Hill Community College

More Information for Faculty Members

Moving A Misplaced Student at the Beginning of the Semester (Printable Form)

Advising Guide with Instructions (Printable Form)

The IP grade

Philosophy

Recommended ESL Textbooks

Resources

OVERVIEW OF ALL ESL COURSES

ENG 112 and college content courses
ENG 111 and college content courses
ENG 095 and college content courses
that do not require ENG 095 or ENG 111

Upon completion of advanced ESL, 90% of ESL students move to ENG 095 and 10% receive permission to jump to ENG 111.

ESL students can take math and integrated courses with academic level 3, and college content courses with permission.

Focus is on academic English below this point.

ESL 096    ESL 097     ESL 098     ESL 099

Only ESL below this point!

ESL 086     ESL 087     ESL 087     ESL 089
ESL 076     ESL 077     ESL 078    ESL 079
BSL 008     BSL 009

Focus is on general English below this point.

BSL 005   BSL 006
BSL 001    BSL 002 
BLL  Basic Language Literacy

ESL Course Placements
Please talk to an assessment staff member about your ESL placement.

NON-CREDIT COURSES - English as a Second Language Basic Courses are $187 each. Financial aid is not available.
There is no residency requirement for taking these classes.

BLL Basic Language Literacy

BLL-001 Basic Reading/Writing 
BLL-002    Basic Conversation

B1   Beginners Level One

BSL-001 Speak/Listen I 
BSL-003  Grammar & Vocabulary
BSL-002 Read/Write I

B2   Beginners Level Two

BSL-005 Speak/Listen II 
BSL-003  Grammar & Vocabulary
BSL-006 Read/Write II 
BSL-020  Computer Literacy 1

B3   Beginners Level Three

BSL-010 Speak/Listen III 
BSL-012   Grammar & Vocabulary
BSL-011 Read/Write III  
BSL-020  Computer Literacy 1

CREDIT COURSES –
“English as a Second Language/Academic”

Academic courses are $318 each. Students can apply for financial aid. See course catalog for residency requirements.

A1

ESL076 Academic Note-Taking I (Listening skills)
ESL077 Academic Speaking I 
ESL516  Vocabulary/Grammar
ESL078 Academic Reading I   (optional)
ESL 079 Academic Writing I

A2

ESL086 Academic Note-Taking II (Listening skills)
ESL087 Academic Speaking II 
ESL516  Vocabulary/Grammar
ESL088 Academic Reading II   (optional)
ESL089 Academic Writing II

A3

ESL096 Academic Note-Taking III (Listening skills)
ESL097 Academic Speaking III
ESL098 Academic Reading III
ESL099 Academic Writing III

Academic ESL students may be eligible for math, computer, and other classes as well as
Allied Health certificate programs. Speak with an ESL advisor.

THE IP GRADE = In Progress

1. You can give this grade to BSL and ESL students and they can complete their IP grades in the Language Lab if and only if they have successfully completed 70% of their course work.

• These students will work with the faculty members and tutors who work in the lab and you will be informed about their progress or lack of progress.

• Please complete an AGREEMENT FOR IN-PROGRESS GRADE form; follow the instructions on the form, available in the Enrollment Services area in the Main Lobby on the main campus and at the front desk at the Chelsea campus.

• Please write the grade that the student has earned to date on the form.
• When you list what the student must complete, please refer to your course objectives and indicate which objectives the student must demonstrate mastery of.

• Give one copy of this form to the student and ask him/her to bring it to the language lab E 226. Slide one copy of this form under the ESL Department Chair’s door, and keep a copy for your records.

2. If BSL and ESL students have not successfully completed 70% of their course work, you can still give them the IP grade, but you will have to arrange terms of completion with these students.

• These students will work with you either by taking your course again or working with you independently.

This is a free service and
students do not have to register for it.

PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT

STUDENTS

Students enroll in BESL courses for many reasons. According to a 1999 survey to which 119 students responded,

 

• 75 checked that they wanted to find a better job, and

• 74 indicated that they wanted to receive an education.

• 52 selected speaking as the most important language skill, and

• 36 picked listening.

• Reading received 11 votes and writing 8.

• 56 of the respondents indicated that they wished to enroll in courses in the Academic ESL Department.

 

This information and other information from the survey reveal that it will be difficult for BESL faculty members to meet these needs in a particular BESL course. In addition, these students bring diversity in terms of preparedness in first and second language skills, motivation and focus to learn English, external pressure in terms of family responsibility and work, and learning styles.

CURRICULUM

Attached is a curriculum for each BESL course. All the BESL curricula have been developed top down. Before developing the curricula for BSL 008 and BSL 009, the curricula for the first level in the Academic ESL Department were considered. Therefore, the BESL curricula are sequential and build on each other, and the BESL faculty members are asked to deliver a particular curriculum in the context of the curricula that precede and follow it.

The BESL curriculum attempts to meet the various and many needs of the BESL students. As a result, it will be impossible for BESL faculty members to cover every objective in a particular curriculum. Therefore, BESL faculty members are encouraged to emphasize learning strategies so that the BESL students can become effective independent learners who take advantage of the vast resources in the Center of Self Directed Learning and Multi-Assistance Center (Refer to Handbook for details).  Students may enroll in any BESL course a second time if they wish.

FACULTY MEMBERS

The BESL Department respects academic freedom and asks all BESL faculty members to survey their students, identify their most important needs, deliver the curriculum in the context of student needs, consider the curricula of the other BESL courses, and emphasize the teaching of learning strategies.

THE TEACHING OF GRAMMAR

Each BESL curriculum indicates grammar structures to be taught, and there is a grammar handout for each BESL level with grammar explanations for these structures. The explanations come from Focus On Grammar, and exercises are available at the computer stations for ESL students at both the Chelsea and main campus. BESL faculty members are encouraged to teach these grammatical structures as they occur in authentic readings and student generated writing assignments. The mechanical aspect of learning these structures can take place in the CSDL, E 235 on the main campus and the computer room in the Chelsea Campus with the Focus on Grammar software as well as other programs.

THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGE SKILLS

BESL course are either Listening/Speaking or Reading/Writing, but BESL faculty members are encouraged to use all language skills in any BESL course.

THE TEACHING OF LEARNING STRATEGIES

BESL faculty members are encouraged to teach their BESL students how to learn so they can become independent learners. To present and effectively teach all the points on a particular BESL curriculum will be impossible. When students learn how to use a dictionary for many purposes, such as how to find the correct definition according to the context of the reading and how to pronounce from the dictionary, they can become better independent learners. When they learn strategies to learn listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, and grammar structures such as verb tenses, they will be able to look at the curricula for all BESL courses and learn by themselves and thus learn more effectively and quickly.

Developing Job Skills through the BESL Curriculum

RATIONALE

While the Basic English as a Second Language (BESL) curriculum helps students improve their general English language skills and prepares them for academic coursework, it also helps students build job skills while improving their English by including both theme-based and task-based instruction.  Theme-based English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction integrates language skills instruction with the study of a theme--in this case, many facets of working and the workplace.  Since most of our BESL students wish to improve their ability to obtain employment or wish to obtain employment at a higher level, we believe that students will be genuinely motivated to learn English skills within the meaningful context of the workplace.

Moreover, the BESL curriculum has been designed to be task-based, which is a way to integrate the teaching of communicative tasks with the teaching of all language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing & grammar).  While learning to write a memo, compile an inventory chart, or read a graph that shows the company’s recent revenues, students are not only gaining knowledge of how to complete the task itself; they are also learning the language needed to complete the task.  Another benefit of task-based instruction in ESL is that it often involves group work, preparing students to cooperate as team members in the workplace.

Both task-based and theme-based language instruction are appropriate at all levels of language competence.  As the student develops more competence in English, the level of instruction increases and the complexity of the tasks required in the course also increases.  For example, in a beginning BESL course, a student may be asked to read a memo and paraphrase its message.  In a higher BESL course, a student may be asked to write a memo to a supervisor to respond to a situation or to summarize a pie chart or bar graph that indicates sales in the last quarter.  Thus, as students progress in language development, they also progress in workplace skills.

In summary, we believe that this program of providing task-based and theme-based English language instruction to our students maximizes language instruction and workforce training.