University Daily Kansan, January 20, 1982
Page 9
English only subject at Applied English Center
BY KARN MUELLER Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
They live in McColum Hall, Battelfield hall, or any hall. They sponsor ethnic parties and talk in other languages about other countries. But most of all, foreign students are taught, here like other students to study.
But unlike other students, a high percentage of foreign students must spend half or all of their first year at the university. You can meet KU's English requirement.
Although they are warned about the requirement, many foreign students don't realize that they may have to enroll in extra classes, said the director of the center responsible for testing and teaching foreign students English.
Elizabeth Sopselpa, director of the Applied English Center, 1400 Louisiana St., said foreign students should consider staying home to work on their English proficiency rather than spending an entire semester at KU in English courses that would not apply toward graduation.
Tony Demetriou, Cyprus freshman,
said, "I was warned I'd have a test,
but not that if I didn't pass it I'd have
to take extra courses."
He said he thought that the program was beneficial, but that most foreign students who had to stay in school an extra semester to learn English didn't. He passed the AEC test, but some of his friends from home did not, he said.
One such friend, Eugenos Christodoulou, is beginning his first semester at KU and is enrolled in 12 hours of AEC classes.
"它不帮她 me that I won't be able to take other classes this semester," he said, "but I think it will help me to learn English."
Soppelsa said that the University should tell foreign students before they arrived that there was no guarantee of success and a semester taking English classes.
Studying English in his native land would be in the student's best interest, she said, because the student would pay work would be in a familiar environment.
But when a foreign student does need to gain proficiency at KU, the AEC is there to help.
Soppelsa said that the AEC had a unique relationship to the University.
"It acts as both an autonomous unit and a department within the organization," he said.
The AEC's duties as a separate unit include admitting and enrolling students directly and issuing visas that allow them to study in the United States. Sop蓉娜said.
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The KU undergraduate catalog says that "Applied English courses are open only to those admitted to the Center." However, students may be admitted and enrolled in its courses without being full-time students of the Center.
Full-time AEC students must be enrolled in a minimum of 15 credit hours of AEC courses, compared to the 12 hours required by the University for
A major objective of the Center, she said, is to help students become proficient enough in English to enroll as full-time University students.
The catalog says that "All international students whose native language is not English are required by the Rules and Regulations of the Faculty Senate to enroll in the Applied English courses, if any, specified for them by the AEC, before enrolling in any academic work."
'We give them personalized attention... We look at individual scores and try to balance out students' weaknesses by placing them in the classes they need.'
—Sara Ruge, AEC clerk
However, Sopplaes said, the AEC will waive its requirements for students who have a TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score of 570 or better, or who hold a degree from an English-speaking institution.
"One of the misconceptions about us is that we make the rules," Suppelsa said. "We are here to carry out the mission and help the university in fulfilling its rules."
But some students are unhappy with the rules anyway. Krupa Billa, president of the International Club, might think that the AEC is pushing too hard."
Last February, the International Club and several other foreign student organizations were preparing to ask Student Senate to investigate
grievances against the AEC. At that time, Billa was quoted as saying that many foreign students felt they were wasting their time at the AEC and that they were not learning English from the courses offered at the AEC.
Recently, however, Billa said that those complaints never reached students because he was able to investigate some of the problems privately with Sopelma.
But Billa said students still complained about the AEC. The most recent problem came last summer when the AEC raised the required TOEFL score to 570. Last February, students could score the AEC with a score of 50 or better.
This higher score eliminated many prospective students from admission to KU, Billa said. Other similar schools did not raise this score requirement.
Also, some departments such as special education, were not consulted about the change, Billa said.
But besides being an autonomous unit, the AEC also is a KU department.
In its role as a department, the AEC offers its classes to University students who haven't completed the language requirement. Students enroll in these classes at Allen Field House during regular enrollment times, Soppela said.
A student's English ability is determined by the AEC Proficiency Test, a four-part test that students must take if they are not already proficient. Soppela said that this test was a modified version of a test developed by a similar center at the University of Michigan.
"With it, we try to find out a student's acceptance, and production costs," she said.
Students who do not pass the test must enroll in the required classes to receive a diploma.
"We give them personalized attention," said Sara Ruge, AEC student admissions clerk. "We look at individual scores and try to balance out students' weaknesses by placing them in the classes they need."
Jacqueline Rivero, Venezuela junior,
said the AEC class she was required to
take last semester was well-taught.
The AEC employs about 35 full-time instructors, she said. Many of these are graduate assistants in a program called Teaching English as a Second Language. These graduate assistants have taken at least one course in teaching methods, are currently enrolled in a teacher supervised by the faculty and are reevaluated each semester, Sopselma said.
Students take the same test at the end of the semester to measure their progress, Soppelbaum said. During the semester, students rely on teachers' progress reports.
Although students enrolled only in the AEC are not also enrolled in the University, they are included in the University's enrollment figures, she said. And fall semester had the largest number of students—304 ever enrolled at AEC colleges.
Soppelea has taught English as a Second Language for 10 years, coming to KU from Ohio State University, an assistant director of a similar program.
from semester to semester and was staffed accordingly.
This high enrollment figure means that the AEC is receiving more money than ever this year because it is funded by the federal government to the number of students enrolled at the Center. Sopelaa said this meant that the size of the program changed
The enrollment fee for a full-time AEC student is comparable to out-of-state tuition, Ruge said, which is slightly more than $1,100 a semester.
Although the AEC is funded by its students, Soppsela said that its purpose was to move students through the university without detaining them in any way.
The reasons for this cost, she said, include the additional work required to process the tests and the time required to give each student as much personal attention as possible. For example, she said, AEC classes are small, and private counseling is available.
John Eve, Lawrence senior, sketches the scenery from a stair way on the east side of Hoch Auditorium Tuesday afternoon.
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