Q. Where can I get advice about Boise State classes?

Q. How much do these classes cost?

Q. Which classes are best for me?

Q. Am I ready for university classes?

Q. Do I need to take the TOEFL? What score do I need to get into Boise State?

Q. Is it possible, if I do really well in English 122, to skip English 123, and go straight to 101?

Q. Can I skip the English as a Second Language courses and go straight to English 101?

Q. Where can I get help with my English grammar and pronunciation?

Q. What does the Writing Center do, and how can I use it?

Q. Where can I get help filling out forms?

Q. What is the GED test?

Q. What is the difference between the International Admissions Office and the International Programs Office?

Q. I've taken courses at another college or university. How do I transfer credit? What if it's from a school in a different country?

Q. I'm a faculty member and I have had a few ESL students. How can I help them?

Q. I want to teach English as a second or foreign language. What kinds of programs or courses are there for me?

Q. Where can I get advice about Boise State classes and deree programs?

A. For advice about undergraduate or graduate courses and degree programs, see the advisors in the Gateway Center. Each department also has advisors who can help you. For advice about English as a second language classes, browse the rest of this website or contact Professor Gail Shuck, 426-1189 or gshuck@boisestate.edu

[RETURN TO TOP]


Q:  Which English classes are best for me?

• The Learning Center for Adult Basic Education has the perfect ESL classes for you if you want to improve practical English skills helpful for life in the U.S., and is a good choice for those who are working full-time and can only study a few hours each week or only at nights (though you can choose to take a full-time study schedule) or if you have limited finances for your English study.
  
  
• If you want to develop your English skills in an intense, full-time (20 hours each week) program of study, focusing on academic as well as practical English skills, then the Intensive English Program is for you.
  
  
• If you want to focus primarily on writing skills to help you prepare for your credit classes at Boise State, or if you need to take ESL classes for university credit as part of your study plan at Boise State, then one of the English Department's ESL classes is for you.  (Note:  you will need to take the Michigan Test to find out which of the three English Department ESL classes is the best choice for you.)

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q:  How much do these classes cost?

A:  Each ESL program has a different cost.

• The Adult Basic Education classes are free to students, or in a few cases cost a very small amount so the students can keep their textbooks at the end of the class.
  
  
• The Intensive English Program cost is $2,040 for eight weeks, $3,750 for one semester (16 weeks), or $1,420 for four weeks (June & July only).  This cost includes your classes, textbooks, student health insurance, and various other campus fees and services; we provide everything you need to succeed.
  
  
• The English Department ESL classes are credit classes, so tuition will cost the same as any other credit class offered at Boise State.  For part-time students, tuition cost is $149 per credit hour; for full-time Idaho residents, tuition is $2,984 per semester (plus books & other fees), while full-time non-Idaho residents pay tuition of $9,384 (plus books & other fees).
  

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q. Am I ready for university classes?

A. You will know if you are ready to attend university classes if you have a high school diploma and can acheive a minimum score on an English placement test (Michigan Test, or TOEFL).The Michigan Test is given on campus in the Selland College of Applied Technology Assessment Center.You can register for the exam by calling 426-3284.

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q. Is it possible, if I do really well in English 122, to skip English 123, and go straight to 101?

A. Yes, it has been known to happen. That will be up to you and your English 122 instructor (and possibly the director of the ESL courses, Professor Gail Shuck) to decide together. If you and your instructor agree that you are ready for 101, you will need the signature of Professor Gail Shuck (426-1189 or gshuck@boisestate.edu) in order to override the Compass Test prerequisite.

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q. Can I skip the English as a Second Language courses and go straight to English 101?

A. In some cases, yes. In other cases, it's not advised. The best option if English is not your native language is to take the ESL placement test. It's possible to be placed directly into E101 on the basis of that test. If you are placed into English 121, 122, or 123, you probably need some writing and reading practice before taking English 101. However, once your teacher has seen a sample of your writing in class, she or he can talk to you about changing classes during the first week. There are three primary advantages of taking English 121, 122, and/or 123:

1. The instructor is very familiar with the linguistic and other issues that face nonnative English speakers as they write in English. She or he has experience in helping ESL students work through those issues.
   
   
2. Those courses receive credit. English 90, another course that prepares (mostly) native English speakers for English 101, does not.
   
   
3. You may need practice discovering, organizing, and developing your ideas in order to succeed in English 101. If you do not want to take any courses in the E121, E122, E123 sequence, you must have taken the SAT or ACT (see the Writing Program's placement page) or take the Compass test, which is intended for native English speakers. You must get a score of 68 in order to be placed into English 101. If you are placed into English 90, consider taking English 123 instead, for the 3 reasons listed above. To take the Compass, go to Technical Services, rm. 115. Some students are placed into English 101 (and even directly into English 102!) but choose to take English 122 or 123 for extra practice first.

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q. What is the difference between the International Admissions Office and the International Programs Office?

A. The International Admissions Office, located in Room 107 of the Administration Building, serves prospective international students and applying students prior to admission. The International Programs Office, located at 1136 Euclid, provides most services for international students once they arrive on campus including advising and assisting with immigration regulations, visas, academic advising, orientation and registration.

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q. Where can I get help with my English grammar and pronunciation?

A.The Writing Center at Boise State University offers help with all aspects of writing, from early planning and drafting to final editing. Call 426-1298.

The International Programs office at Boise State University provides individual English tutoring for a fee. Call 426-3652.

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q. What does the Writing Center do, and how can I use it?

The Writing Center is available to help you when you are working on writing assignments or other writing projects. You can make an appointment by calling 426-1298 or coming to Liberal Arts 200. The Center also takes drop-ins without appointments, but if you drop in you may have to wait a while before someone can work with you.

The Writing Center is able to help you with writing, but not with learning English speech or grammar. For help with these aspects of the language, please see the Intensive English Program or the Learning Center for Adult Basic Education.

Q. Can the Writing Center help me with proofreading and correcting grammar?

Yes, though the consultant can't actually proofread and correct a paper for you. What the consultant can do is go over part of the paper with you and help you develop some skill at identifying and correcting the errors.

Q. What happens in a Writing Center consultation?

Think of a writing consultation as a kind of workshop, where your piece of writing is the object to be worked on. What goes on in the consultation depends a lot on what you are writing and what you want to do with it, but here's a typical pattern: The consultant will ask you what your writing project or assignment is and what you want to work on. The consultant will engage in a conversation with you about the draft–not as a judge of your writing, but as an interested, understanding reader. The two of you will discuss the next steps: what you should focus on as you complete or revise the writing. You may make an appointment to discuss the same paper further after you've revised it.

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q. Where can I get help filling out forms?

A. The Boise State University Cultural Center offers an ongoing orientation program to help minority students successfully complete their education. Orientation sessions are free and cover a variety of topics such as academic advising and financial aid issues. Call 426-1449 or go their web site: Cultural Center

[RETURN TO TOP

Q. What is the GED test?

A. The GED test is commonly referred to as the high-school equivalency test. It is considered to be equivalent to a high school diploma, measuring the knowledge and skills one should acquire during the standard 12 years of schooling in the United States. To find out if it is necessary for you to take the GED test before enrolling at Boise State University, contact the Admissions office at 426-1156 or go their Web Site: admissions.boisestate.edu

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q. I've taken courses at another college or university. How do I transfer credit? What if it's from a school in a different country?

A. When applying to Boise State University, you are required to submit official transcripts from all college or universities attended. If these schools are located within the United States, the evaluation of transfer credit is completed after admission to Boise State. If the transcripts are from schools located outside the United States, they are sent to an outside evaluation service after the 10th day of the students first semester. This can take up to six weeks to be completed. However, before the transcripts can be sent to the evaluation service, the student must provide a syllabus or course description of the courses taken at those schools. After the evaluation is completed, a list of the transferable courses is sent to the student.

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q. I'm a faculty member and I have had a few ESL students. How can I help them?

A. Here are a few suggestions. For more, please read Working with Nonnative English Speakers and/or call Gail Shuck, Assistant Professor of English, 426-1189 (gshuck@boisestate.edu).

Most importantly, make sure that those students know that you respect their desire and willingness to work harder than most native English speakers for their education. Most of their college work -including taking tests, writing papers, reading, even listening to lectures- simply takes them longer. If at all possible, give nonnative speakers extra time on tests. Even after 20 years of exposure to a second language, cognitively demanding activities make one resort to translating or taking far longer to work through difficult syntax and new vocabulary.

1. Remember that anything you can do to help nonnative speakers will necessarily help native speakers as well.
   
   
2. Consider making revision an integral part of your courses; most ESL students take very seriously opportunities to revise their writing.
   
   
3. Pause often while speaking, in order to give ESL students time to process the language they just heard. Use visual aids.
   
   
4. Do not expect grammatically perfect papers from ESL students. Because nonnative speakers have had merely a fraction of the exposure to spoken and written English in naturally-occurring contexts that native speakers have had, the vast majority of them do not control the vocabulary and syntax and discourse conventions that native speakers do. Errors persist for second-language speakers' whole lives because they do not have the intuitive grammatical knowledge, in many cases, to correct them. For this reason, they will get native-speaking roommates or friends to "correct" their work. This has a number of short-term and long-term consequences:
   
   
5. Overly zealous editors will end up revising the content of the ESL students' work. It then becomes impossible to evaluate how well your student is actually doing.
   
   
6. Students don't learn any more English from those corrections because the editor is usually incapable of pointing out patterns of error.
   
   
7. The editor may misinterpret the writer's intentions and "mis-correct."
   
   
8. Expectations for perfect grammar almost automatically sets up nonnative speakers for failure. If we focus our (and their) attention solely on errors, we neglect important opportunities to offer new phrases and sentences structures. (See suggestion #4.)
   
   
9. Errors are only part of the trouble that ESL students have as they write and speak. They need to learn a variety of alternatives for saying things. Offer two or more alternatives for phrases that are unclear, rather than correcting errors yourself. For example, a student of mine wrote, Whenever I have to translate for someone, I feel sad and upset. This sentence was critical to the student's main point, so I wrote "Do you mean you were frustrated? You felt helpless? You felt a sense of loss?" Then the student had to decide what he meant, but now he had more ways of expressing similar feelings. Of course, you can't do this every time. However, if you choose just a few points on which to comment in this way -points that are crucial to the paper- you will have given your student quite a gift.
   
   
10. Set ESL students up with "buddies," native English-speaking students who take good notes or seem otherwise particularly responsible. Set up study groups, informal review sessions, and collaborative assignments for all of your students. ESL students may be more likely to take advantage of those opportunities, but all students who participate will benefit. For more information on this subject, there is a more detailed analysis available in the Word Works article.

[RETURN TO TOP]

Q. I want to teach English as a second or foreign language. What kinds of programs or courses are there for me?

At the undergraduate level:
The Department of Elementary Education and Specialized Studies offers a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education, with a bilingual education/ESL emphasis. For more information, contact Professor Jay Fuhriman at 426-3602 or jfuhrim@boisestate.edu.

The Department of English offers a major with an emphasis in Linguistics, which can help prepare language teachers. It also offers an emphasis in Secondary Education, for those who wish to teach in middle and high schools. Many students in these programs take Linguistics 407, Applied Linguistics in Teaching English as a Second Language (3 credits), a course that weaves language acquisition theory with practical teaching strategies for prospective teachers in the U.S. and abroad.

In addition to Linguistics 407, the Department of English offers ESL-related Special Topics courses, internships, and workshops, including Tutoring ESL Students in English Grammar (3 credits). Contact Professor Gail Shuck, 426-1189 or gshuck@boisestate.edu.

The Department of Foreign Languages also offers Foreign Languages 410, Approaches to Foreign Language Education (3 credits), whose emphasis is foreign language teaching in the U.S. but which also prepares English language teachers who wish to teach abroad. Contact Professor Teresa Boucher, 426-3956 or tbouche@boisestate.edu.

At the graduate level:
Currently, Boise State offers a Master of Arts degree in English, with an emphasis in English Education. Students in this program who are interested in teaching English as a second language take Linguistics 407G, Applied Linguistics in Teaching English as a Second Language.

The Department of English also ESL-related Special Topics courses, internships, and workshops, including Tutoring ESL Students in English Grammar (3 credits). Contact Professor Gail Shuck, 426-1189 or gshuck@boisestate.edu. As the number of ESL students at BSU grows, we hope to offer graduate assistantships in teaching English as a second language.

BSU also offers a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction, with a bilingual education/ESL option. Please contact Professor Jay Fuhriman at 426-3602 or jfuhrim@boisestate.edu.

Outside BSU:
Please see Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages for lists of job opportunities and TESL certification and degree programs. Also see Dave’s ESL Café for online TESL programs.

[RETURN TO TOP]