Creating an Enabling Environment for International Students to Enhance Their Fluency in English
Purpose: To identify and analyze a problem and/or to make a proposition (suggestion) for a specific audience. In addition to the content of your paper (the problem), you will learn more about analyzing the rhetorical situation of the task.
Length: Your final draft should be 1000-1200 words long. You will also produce a separate rhetorical analysis memo of 250-300 words (see attachment on p.4 for instructions).
Topic: Identify a problem or make a proposition (suggestion) related to any problem within an educational context. Optionally, you can relate the problem to language. For example, maybe you want to suggest to the school board in your home town that elementary schools should offer second language instruction to all children so that they can become bilingual or multilingual. Maybe you learned English as a second language and want to point out some problems with the curriculum to the school or program where you studied. Maybe you wish you’d studied grammar or vocabulary more intensively in high school or that you’d read more useful/interesting books and want to point out problems or make suggestions to the English department or principal at your high school.
Your topic should be related to experiences you had in high school (or even earlier) or in college. Think specifically about classes you took, teachers/professors you had, or curriculum choices you made (or that were imposed on you). The only limits are (a) you must have some personal history with the problem or suggestion (either you experienced it yourself or observed it closely); and (b) you must be able to analyze and provide some perspective on this problem or proposition for a specific audience.
Task: Your job is to describe for your audience (see below) what the problem and/or idea is from your perspective and convince them that this is a problem or proposition they need to think more about and/or do something about.
Audience: You will write to an audience of your choosing that has a stake in the problem and would benefit from your insights and analysis. An important component of this assignment is your ability to fit your ideas, tone, and language to your specified audience. Note: “General Audience” or “Everyone” or “Americans” (etc.) is not acceptable. You must have a specific group of people in mind.
Genre: This paper should be written as a letter or memo to a group of stakeholders and/or decision-makers to whom you would like to address your concerns (and suggest a solution or course of action, if applicable). We will discuss differences between letters and memos and important characteristics of the two genres.
Sources to Consult: We will read two articles on rhetorical analysis and genre (Carroll and Dirk). You do not need to cite these in your paper unless they fit your topic.
As “evidence” for your problem analysis or for your proposition, you might include a story from your own experience or that of someone you know or quotes from peers or others with experience related to the problem. You are not expected to do outside research.
Professor
Title
Date []
Creating an enabling environment for international students to enhance their fluency in English
Problem: Most international students miss out on university opportunities because they can’t debate fluently in English
To: The Department of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Dear, Dean,
I am writing to you as an international student who came to the United States of America to pursue my dream of getting a high-quality education. I am writing to make a proposal so that an enabling environment can be created to enable the international students to debate fluently in English. International students have continued to fly to the United States of America in large numbers because they trust the education system in America would open doors for them to fit anywhere in the world labor market. The international students have sacrificed a lot in their course of pursuing higher education in the U.S. First; they have sacrificed their lifelong friends and close family members hence they deserve the best services while here in America. However, there exist numerous challenges that international students face which need amicable solutions.
Personally, as a student from Hong Kong taking my studies in the United States of America, I feel that it is very hard to debate fluently in English because back at home, Chinese is my first language. Other international students have the same problem too, for instance, students who use, French, Japanese and Korean as their native languages equally find it hard to debate fluently in English which is a second language to them. The English language that I have acquired can only allow me to communicate in writing and not in speech because I lack adequate English vocabulary to argue with the local students.
The difficulty in arguing fluently in English has denied international students a numbers of opportunities in the University. First, it makes it hard for the international students to compete in the annual Student University politics. During University student elections, students are expected to elect one of their own to represent them in the University Council. The election campaign is usually competitive and requires one to be fluent enough in English in articulating student issues to win the students' support. However, most international students often shy away from participating since they cannot debate fluently in English. For instance, last year I wanted to contest for the position of student secretary for treasury and finance, but I quit the race in the last minutes because I was not fluent enough to convince local students. My close friend from I also wanted to contest for the student presidency but quit after local students dismissed him for being a being a poor orator. I, therefore, feel that the situation should be addressed urgently so that international students can participate in student leadership in the future.
Another challenge that international students face in the University due to their inability to communicate in English fluently is that they are limited when it comes to mingling with other local students. Most local American students use English and are not willing to learn foreign languages hence international students find it hard socializing with people they cannot understand. Although international students know some English they are not that fluent and in most cases they would be left confused in a lengthy discussion involving the use of English vocabulary. For example, I was disappointed when one of my colleagues, from China, was dismissed by the local students recently while going for a picnic. My pal by the name XiYu got disqualified from the list of students who were to travel to the nearby camping site on the assumption that he lacked fluency in English to socialize with local students while on the trip hence could make the camping trip boring. XiYu got demoralized to the extent that he deferred studies for one semester.
International students also miss fantastic annual university events like the Mr. and Miss University award competitions due to lack of English fluency skills needed. Usually, the participants are expected to be fluent in English so that they can understand the theme of the competition and present it fluently in English. Furthermore, the final winners are supposed to represent the University in external marketing activities. Missing such opportunities makes the life of international students miserable and hence the need for immediate interventions. For instance, when I was in College, Jenny, one of the best model students from China, was denied the opportunity t...