Description of the Context

This action research project is focused on adult English Language Learner (ELL)

students in accelerated English basic-skills class of non-native and native English speakers in a

community college in southern California. Many non-native English students took English for

Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes prior to coming to accelerated basic-skills class.

Also, there are veterans and parents as students who have not took academic classes for a while

that basic-skills course becomes crucial in scaffolding their academic strategies and discussions.

Most of the students in accelerated basic-skills class aim their goal to reach college level English

class, which is English 101. While they are taking accelerated basic-skills class, they also take

general education classes to fill in their credits in order to transfer to four-year universities or to

receive Associate Degree.

In order to take accelerated English basic-skills class, ESOL students need to successfully

complete and pass ESOL 40. When they reach ESOL 40, they have two options to choose - the

accelerated course or the traditional path to reach college level English class. Accelerated course
ENGLISH FOR SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES (ESOL)
COURSE SEQUENCE
ENGL 101/105
Prerequsities: ENGL 047A; OR ENGL 048 and 049; OR ESOL 045 with Assessment L40; OR ESOL 045 and ESOL 032; or Assessment R5/W5

ESOL 045 (9 units) ENGL 048 (3 units) ENGL 049 (3 units)

reading and study skills basic composition
accelerated reading/writing/grammar
Prerequsities: ESOL 040 and Assessment L40; Prerequsities: ESOL 040 and Assessment L40;
Prerequsities: ESOL 030 and ESOL 031 with
OR ESOL 040 and ESOL 032; OR ESOL 040 and ESOL 032;
ESOL 032 corequisite;
OR ENGL 042; OR ENGL 043;
OR Assessment L40
OR Assessment R4 OR Assessment W4
Limitation: ENGL 047A, ENGL 048, ENGL 049
Limitation: ESOL 045, ENGL 047A Limitation: ESOL 045, ENGL 047A

Assessment L40 ESOL 040# (6 units)

ESOL 040 OR ESOL 045 Accelerated Path Traditional Path
1 semester, 9 units 2 semesters, 12 units reading/writing/grammar
(6 or 9 units) Prerequsities: ESOL 030 and ESOL 031 with
ESOL 032 corequisite; OR Assessment L40

Assessment L30 * ESOL 040 requires

ESOL 030, 031, 032 ESOL 030 (6 units) ESOL 031 (3 units) ESOL 032* (3 units) a prerequisite of
writing/grammar reading listening/speaking ESOL 030 and 031
(12 units)
Prerequsities: ESOL 020 and ESOL 021; Prerequsities: ESOL 021; Prerequsities: ESOL 022; and concurrent
OR Assessment L30 OR Assessment L30 OR Assessment L30 enrollment or
completion of
Assessment L20 ESOL 032 (with a
ESOL 020, 021, 022 ESOL 020 (6 units) ESOL 021 (3 units) ESOL 022 (3 units) C or better) OR
writing/grammar reading listening/speaking Assessment Skills
(12 units)
Prerequsities: ESOL 019; Prerequsities: ESOL 019; Prerequsities: ESOL 019; Level L40.
OR Assessment L20 OR Assessment L20 OR Assessment L20
# After successfully
completing ESOL
Levels 20 and 30 Courses within Levels 20 and 30 may be taken in any order. If you do not take them at the same time, the ESOL 040, students have
Department recommends taking reading and listening/speaking courses before writing/grammar courses. the option to take
both ENGL 048 and
Assessment L19 049 or ENGL 047A
ESOL 019 ESOL 019 (5 units) (accelerated English).
all skills
(5 units) Please see next page.
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takes one semester and traditional path takes two semesters to complete. Many students try to

choose the accelerated course, even though it is rigorous and challenging, because it saves and

reduces the time for them to transfer to a four-year university or to receive Associate Degree.

Also, it helps students to reach their goal in a faster pace.

In the class that I am embedded in, 25 students enrolled in accelerated English basic-

skills class but the enrollment dropped to 20 students. Based on 20 students, there are 11 non-

native English students and 9 native English students. I associated non-native English students as

to those whose English is not their primary language. In addition, there were students who were

bilinguals. For instance, one of the student wrote down Spanish as his first language but wrote

native English speaker on the next column. Because bilingualism is increasing, it was

understandable how the student was able to answer native in English even though English was

not his primary language. For this study, I counted bilingual students as non-native students

because their first language was not English.

Each week, the class met twice per week for 1 hour and 50 minutes. The class mainly

focus on supporting critical thinking skills because accelerated basic-skills class is aimed

towards preparing students for college level course. However, the concept of target varies based

on the students needs. If the students need more review on grammatical issue, such as sentence

structure, verb tenses, and syntax, the professor will make a lesson on grammar issues to clarify

the doubts. The course professor has been teaching over 7 years in English and ESOL classes

that she pinpoints the weaknesses and most commonly made mistakes in grammar. Furthermore,

she gives clear visual guidelines with purpose in activities and assignments in order to support

students comprehension.
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My primary role in the accelerated basic-skills class was a Graduate Tutor (GT). I

assisted the mentor professor with the course related materials and preparations towards the

lesson activities. Not only I assisted the professor, I supported the students outside and inside of

the classroom to help them on the assignments and essays to clarify their doubts. I had been

working with the mentor professor for two consecutive semesters and I started to wonder, how I

can support oral participation from non-native English students in an English class mixed of

native and non-native English students. In addition, I noticed that only the same students become

the speakers of the class. Through the action research, I want to break the norm and bring all the

students to orally participate in class discussion because language learning happens through

social interaction. Because I had a chance to work with the same professor, I thought it as an

opportunity to pursue my study in the accelerated basic-skills class.

Because the class is not my own, rather an assistant/tutor for the class, there has been

challenges in pursuing my study. The professor had a lot to cover in one lesson with limited time.

Therefore, there were little time to aim for my study. However, the professor allowed short time

during class activities to collect data and support students oral participation. My role as a

Graduate Tutor helped me to be more approachable to the students. Many of them came to my

office hours to ask questions and those questions helped me to find the needs and learnings of the

students. Those questions on assignments, lectures, and discussions helped me to narrow down

on the needs to support non-native English students oral participation.