Page 8 University Daily Kansan, September 25, 1980
AEC adapts to new director, location
By KATHY BRUSSELL
Staff Reporter
After 16 years of helping foreign students adjust to language and cultural differences in the United States, KU's Applied English Center is making some adoptions of its own this semester.
The center, which is run as a department of the College of Liberal Arts or as a faculty department. English to foreign students and others whose first language is not English.
It also is responsible for screening all foreign students to make sure they are proficient in English before they enroll in regular KU courses.
THIS SEMESTER, the AEC is going through a period of transition with a new director and a new office location.
Elizabeth Soppele, professor of English and sociology, became director in August. She came to KU from Ohio State University, where she had been a graduate school student since 1980, a program designed to teach English to foreign students.
Before that, Soppela worked in an adult education program in New York. She also has taught English near the
Gulf of Guinea on Africa's Ivory Coast as a member of the Peace Corps.
The AEC's offices have been moved off campus to a house at 1400 Louisiana St. Last semester, the center was in Blake Hall Annex, but that building is occupied by architecture students who are moving the renovation of Marvin Hall.
According to Soppeils, all AEC courses are being taught in Fraser Hall, Blake Anne or Wescoe Hall, and the location has not posed a big problem.
"However, our foreign students don't drop in as much as we'd like them to," she said. "They only contact is with their teachers on campus."
According to University rules, the AEC must determine the level of English proficiency of all foreign students and specify what, if any, courses they are required to take at the center.
STUDENTS WHO SCORE 500 or above on the AEC's standardized English test, may bypass the AEC and enroll in regular classes. Their scores below 500 are placed at an appropriate level in the AEC, she said.
AEC courses are divided into four levels, she said. Students at the first two levels must be enrolled full-time at the center, while those in the upper two levels may take a combination of AEC and KU courses, she said.
This semester, the center has about 270 students, 60 percent of whom are foreigners. The center is one of five colleges with a
Although she has heard no specific complaints about the AEC since she arrived, Sopplea said she was aware of the issues and was informed with the way the center was operated.
One of the major objections heard during the past few years was that students received no college credit for the courses they took at the AEC. More often, some students considered their AEC classes a waste of time, she said.
Some universities offer college credit for the highest level of English proficiency courses, Soppsela said. However, if a student at the lower levels of the AEC received credit for the courses, the number of electives he would need for graduation would be greatly reduced.
Also, a university is perfectly justified in expecting a student to be
proficient in English before he begins earning credit for college courses, she said.
One alternative is to allow AEC students to substitute their English hours for required hours of a foreign language, she said.
"Some schools here at KU may remove the foreign language requirement for a foreign student whose native language is not English," Soppelsa said. "In other words, they will never be already known a foreign language."
Foreign students also have said that some teachers at the AEC are
SMIT VAJARANANT, president of the Thai Students Association, said he had heard many foreign students complain about AEC teachers who "can't really communicate with the students."
According to a Japanese student who has been taking AEC courses for three semesters, "Some of the teachers are good, and others are bad. I get the feeling that some of them don't have a willingness to teach."
The instructors at the AEC are teaching assistants who are hired for a training position.
The TA's may be graduate students in any subject, but most of them are undergraduates.
education or a foreign language, she said.
Instructors are hired on the basis of their previous experience in teaching English as a second language, and many of them have had contact with foreign students and cultures, she said. They also are required to take an upward course of study in foreign methods of teaching English to foreign speakers, she said.
AEC administrators observe the center's classes and evaluate the TA's at the end of each semester, Soppelsa said.
Students also should be able to evaluate their teachers, but in the case of the AEC, student evaluations need to be professional, not professional professional teacher-trainers, she said.
"I think we do need to take into account what the foreign students think a teacher should be," Soppela said. "On the other hand, their cultural attitudes about teaching methods often are very different from our own, and they may criticize things that Americans wouldn't even notice."
Soppelsa said she wanted all students to feel comfortable in coming to the AEC. Only new foreign students are sent to the AEC, while there may be other students on campus who need more work in English, she said.
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Daredevils to perform in concert
The Ozark Mountain Daredevil, a pop-rock group with a country and bluegrass sound, will present this year's homecoming concert Saturay.
Oct. 10.
The special guest star for the 7 p.m.
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All tickets for the show will go on sale at 9 a.m. Oct. 1 in the SUA ticket office.
Reserved tickets will cost $7 and $$.
Students with KU IDs can buy tickets for $5.00 and $7.50.
The Daredevils are natives of the Missouri Ozarks. The group is known for the songs, "If You Want To Get to Heaven" and "Jackie Blue."
"I think they will be received well here." Divine said.
The SUA Special Events committee has been trying to schedule the group for the past two years, according to the past year. The SUA Special Events chairman.
In a survey by the committee two years ago, students were asked which groups they would like to come to campus, and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils ranked 20th of 195 groups listed.
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