It’s not just English, it’s complicated: Approaching at-risk college students’ academic language remediation

2016 IJRSLL – Volume 5 Issue 3

Author/s:

Cacho, Reynald M.*
Philippine Normal University, South Luzon Campus, Philippines (cacho.rm@pnu.edu.ph)

Abstract:

This article reports an alternative assessment of at-risk college students’ second language and academic literacy skills, and their awareness and experiences in learning English as Second Language (ESL) for deeper understanding of such students’ challenges and opportunities. Fifty-one freshmen grantees of the Expanded Students’ Grant-in-Aid Program for Poverty Alleviation (ESGP-PA) in a state university from the Philippines participated in this study mounted on a quantitative-qualitative research design. Results of summative academic literacy tests revealed that the students found considerable level of difficulty in negotiating with meaning and form of college-level language tasks. Problematique analysis of their journals suggests influential factors that could impact at-risk students’ success and failures in college language and literacy instruction. Implications for approaching student-centered-classroom-based English language remediation program are advanced.

Keywords: at-risk college students; academic literacy; study skills; grammar; problematique analysis; remediation

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsll.2015.1247

*Corresponding Author