KUCAMPUS UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, August 16, 1995
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
11C
AEC provides more than academic services
The Eto.
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Center also helps students ease into KU, U.S. culture
One of the first stops for international students at the University of Kansas is the Applied English Center, 104 Lippincott Hall.
the idea of tenses.
By John Collar Special to the Kansan
Before taking full-time classes at KU, all international students must pass an English proficiency test at the center. This test assures that each student is prepared adequately for University classes. If students' test scores indicate the need for more training, they are required to enroll in one of the center's five instruction levels until they receive a passing score.
Elizabeth Soppelsa, the center's director, said international students faced tremendous hurdles in learning a new language.
"My grammar teacher went out of her way to help me.She took us all over town just to grasp the idea of tenses."
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"Many students feel childlike when they begin the language-learning process," Soppelsa said. "They say, 'I'm a human being in here and I can't get out. I can't show you my sense of humor, my understanding of world events, my philosophy of life because I don't have the tools to do it with."
Each semester about 350 students, or 20 percent of KU's international student population, are enrolled in AEC courses.
Souad Kandiel
Jedda, Saudi Arabia, senior
Instructors try to solve this problem by getting students involved in the daily rigors of U.S. life.
"A school in a state like Kansas, which doesn't have large international populations in most areas, really does need a university in which American students have a chance to meet people from other cultures," she said.
Soppelsa said U.S. students could benefit from getting acquainted with international students.
Learning at the center is more than just attending classes, said Carolyn Kaltenbach, Lawrence graduate teaching assistant at the AEC.
the language and speed up the learning process.
"I believe that it's important to make their school work about real life," Kaltenbach said.
Souad Kandiel, Jedda, Saudi Arabia, senior, said these trips helped her.
"My grammar teacher went out of her way to help me," she said. "She took us all over town just to grasp the idea of tenses. We went to a bakery to talk about tenses and to the Natural History Museum.
"My first semester was such a great experience."
Preparing students for academic work is only one part of the center's role. Being a stranger in a strange land forces students to change almost all aspects of life, from eating habits to interacting with new people from different cultures.
The AEC assists students in adapting to
U. S. culture by providing a specialized counseling service in cross-cultural communication.
bringing people together serves as a bridge that allows understanding to flourish, said Margaret Coffey, counseling coordinator at the AEC.
"There are many different ways to view anything in the world. All of them are reasonable in their own context," she said. "Working at the AEC has expanded my ability to understand the world immensely."
"In questioning my professor here, I was surprised that he wasn't offended," she said.
Adapting to the U.S. educational system is typically one of the toughest barriers that international students face, Coffey said. Teacher-to-student relationships are often vastly different in other countries.
In Saudi Arabia, the idea of intellectual freedom is almost nonexistent, Kandiel said. Students are not allowed to question the instructor's knowledge.
After Kandiel questioned the information in class, her professor admitted that he knew nothing of middle-eastern culture.
"I respected this so much," she said. "Somebody in my culture would just throw me out of the lecture."
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