In order to be accepted into any of the FHSU-Chinese BGS programs, students must achieve a score of 500 on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam. Passing this exam, however, does not necessarily mean that these Chinese students - who must take FHSU’s English Comp 1 and 2 during their junior year - can write English similar to that of a native-English-speaking student with college-level writing skills.

The majority of the students in the BGS programs are struggling to reach college-level English writing proficiency. This is not to denigrate the ability of Chinese students, says FHSU Dean of the College Arts and Sciences Paul Faber. "They are doing something that most of us would find impossible to ever do in Chinese."

Some of the challenges that have been identified are related to both cultural and academic issues. For instance, English composition courses typically require students to write essays about controversial topics. In the U.S., having students write about alcoholism as a familial problem, for example, would not pose any problems, but in China such a writing topic would cause great stress. Thus, in short, cultural sensitivity issues had to be identified before writing assignments were put into syllabi.

Secondly, although these Chinese students have taken English courses before entering college - some as early as elementary school - the academic preparation that these students receive is not the same as what students get in the U.S. Pre-college English studies in China often consist mostly of vocabulary, grammar, reading and rote memorization. One parent of a Chinese student, for instance, boasted that his child had memorized 100 English essays. Such memory-oriented study is often drawn upon when these students write class-assigned essays, bringing up the obvious plagiarism and lack-of-originality issues, which FHSU has addressed in a variety
of ways.

According to FHSU English Department Chair Cheryl Duffy - who was recently in China to review how well Chinese students were adopting English writing skills - students entering the BGS programs were not introduced to such concepts as how to compose a proper thesis statement, organize essays and research papers, and use transitions for coherence. Additionally, "Western writing is different from Eastern writing. We are much more direct; whereas, Chinese writing tends to be more circuitous and not as thesis-statement-driven as our Western essays."

Since her visit to China, the order of the day for Duffy has been to get the English writing competencies of these Chinese students up to speed. "We have to ensure that students are prepared before we even see them in Comp 1," she says. "Our main goal for this coming year is to get our partner schools to look at what they are doing to prepare students for the BGS program in the freshman and sophomore years and the writing demands they are going to face in their junior year."

To help meet that goal, SIAS recently introduced a sophomore-level English Comp course, with a class limit of 25 students, that "introduces all those concepts that we tend to assume students here in the U.S. have already had exposure to before they get to Comp 1," says Duffy. Students in this course use the textbook "A College English Writing Course: From Essay to Research Paper and Practical Writing," written by Rebecca Neufield and published by Henan University Press. The other partner institutions are also looking into developing similar course work for their BGS students.

Also, for the junior-level Comp 1 and 2 courses, students this year will be introduced to a new textbook, "College Writing Skills with Readings," published by McGraw-Hill in the U.S., but newly published in China. Additionally, a new handbook, titled "Keys for Writers," by Ann Raimes, published by Houghton Mifflin, is being introduced into the Comp courses. Raimes is a noted figure in English as a second language (ESL) instruction, says Duffy.

In the meantime, each summer FHSU trains newly hired adjunct faculty that move to China to teach English Comp 1 and 2 in the BGS programs. FHSU also trains cooperative teachers, hired by the partner schools, for the other BGS courses. The training is an intense two to three days in length, covering such topics as how to maintain standards while accommodating ESL learners, how to incorporate program goals and expectations, and how to use Blackboard. Additionally, faculty who taught during previous semesters in China attend the training session to share their knowledge and experiences. A Blackboard discussion forum is also maintained where both veteran and new faculty can continuously share their insights.

Last summer 10 adjunct English Comp 1 and 2 faculty were hired (minimum requirement is a master’s degree in English or a related discipline). Some were retired English professors; others were fresh out of graduate school; all were native-English speakers. About half were hired from interviews conducted at a Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) conference that Duffy and Cindy Elliott attended, so these adjuncts also had TESOL professional development backgrounds.

"We had 10 faculty and probably 10 different reasons for teaching in China," says Duffy. The retired teacher, for instance, "just wanted a way to use her expertise and background and also get a chance to see the world."