Policy Proposal

5

Bumejdad

Name: Batoul Bumejdad

Pro. Soren H.

Course: ENG 108

Oct, 2014

“AECP” POLICY

The ESL at ASU American English and Culture Program, which is known as the “AECP”, is an English language department in Arizona State University that offers intensive English classes in different levels of learning specifically for international students where English is considered their second language. In addition, the AECP considered as the bridge to the academic level from which international students will be educated with the American Culture and their English will be improved in order to meet the academic level requirements and not to have difficulties in interacting with their professors or other students due to language barrier.

One year ago AECP classes used to start at 9 am until around 2-4 pm with enough break period between the classes from which students can rest. But recently 3 semesters ago the AECP institution, where the classes starts at 7 am and ends around 4 pm, has assigned a new policy. The majority of AECP students are not satisfied with the new policy where they feel it is stressful and the learning outcome seems to be less due to the pressure since the break period between classes are too short and the teaching sessions take longer time where they loose the passion of learning.

A lot of students consider this new policy as a problem why? I met up with couple of students who currently taking AECP classes. Most of them were complaining about the new policy, since it is so similar to the timing schedule for elementary. Another thing is that they complained that this policy makes classes start and end in the same timetable as elementary, middle and high school. They don’t feel there is a difference in feeling between those schools and the new world of the university. They need a change in time. New students who have just started attending college always seem to be excited and expecting new life style comparing to high school, but the timing schedule of the AECP doesn’t make them feel any difference. In fact, attending classes at 7 am along 5 days a week doesn’t make them feel as grown ups college students they still feel as if they were in high school. Most of them expected that AECP program would be so similar to college life where the new comers are so excited to leave the high school schedules which are so strict and force students to attend early morning classes, new comers felt so disappointed and the majority are lazy to get up in the early morning as if they are reliving the high school life over again. Strictly speaking, one of the important things that most of the students were complaining about the schedule timing from 7 am to 4 pm seems to be so exhaustive for a non native speakers, and they are not learning the proper English due to the high load of information and vocabulary they are teaching in this period of time. In fact, non native speakers should learn the language properly step by step where they feel that AECP is forcing them to learn in stressful schedule, even if the idea was the more time they learn English the more beneficial it would be, in fact this idea is totally wrong. Several studies have proved that a non native speaker need a time to get and earn the second language without a pressure with a lot of patient, they really feel so board when they had to come to school from 7 am until 4 pm it is so demanding even if there were 1 hour break. To me personally I believe that the break time should be extended to more than one hour. In addition some elective were making a pressure in the table time student need from the officers to organize the elective classes distribution. Another information I got from my AECP English instructor, is that there is a study shows that the brain wont get that much of information after 10 am, also the capability of the brain to gain this huge amount of information is approximately around 45 minute, that is the reason why the duration of most of academic classes ranges between 45 min f to 75 minutes maximum for each class with a minimum of 15 minutes break among classes, so how come a second language student takes more that 45 minute per a class? After several meetings with some of the AECP students they explicitly mentioned that the 7 am classes seems to be so stressful where the knowledge outcome they gain is so poor due to the high pressure and they feel loaded Most of the students suffer from that problem, where they think that its bad to lost most of the time in learning nothing. Additionally, another AECP student commented saying “ coming to class at 7 am is not beneficial for me nor my classmates where they barely learning since they feel so exhausted and not excited to learn, if the AECP seeking a better outcome, this policy should be changed”.

Several options were considered as candidates to solve this particular issue in order to make the students satisfied and to gain a better knowledge with improved English. ESL student wants to mingle with other students who are attending ASU to be familiar with the University lifetime; especially during their break or free time on campuses but unfortunately due to the short break period they don’t have the opportunity to do so. They see that the schedule timing of the AECP is not Appropriate with the other students, they were complaining because during their brakes there is almost nobody like they don’t enroll with university students they really wants to so it is better to change the time table to a new Scheduled. Another thing is that students may be more comfortable with 9 am classes more that 7 a classes for a lot of reasons some of them I mentioned in the previous paragraph, for them it would be much easier to come to school from 9 am to 4 or more it will make them more comfortable with the schedule. . An important thing is that there was a notice that there is two days in a week they went to school just for an elective class, so it would be much comfortable if they Re-organize the schedule so that no classes start before 9am. For instance, the mandatory classes time can switched with the elective classes that started later in the day when students will be more awake and energetic from which they can pay more attention in classes.

The reason behind this solution is that the student are really getting exhausted, and they don’t have enough time to get rest, they feel so tired since they spend too much time in school from 7am to 4pm. Most of the students who attend the AECP program complain about this not perfect timing of the schedule. With those solution student will be able to mingle with other students from the university where they will have enough time to benefit from their experience in college life and have the opportunity to chat with them in order to improve their English and enhance their accent as well. Moreover, the interaction between the AECP students and the students who attends ASU (Academic level) will encourage them to look forward being admitted in ASU as well as doing their best to prepare for university life. Another thing is that they will not get tired as now and they will do their home works and lifeworks in more organized schedule.

In conclusion, it is really important to deal with those cases because it’s always priority to make students feel comfortable in what they are learning so they can get the perfect education. Dealing with the time schedule may be hard for another reason but officials need to find a way and good solutions so both sides can get benefit from the result. Moreover, it is necessary to ask the student about their needs and suggestion regarding their school life seeking a better outcome and knowledge that can be gained from classes with more excitement which will expand their passion of studying and learning.