Running head: SUCCESSFUL ACADEMIC ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Preliminary Research:
Successful Academic English Language Learners
Chienyu Jade Yi
Wheaton College Graduate School

for
INTR 573 Qualitative Research for Second Language Educators
Dr. Cheri Pierson
Nov. 21, 2016

SUCCESSFUL ACADEMIC ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Abstract
Due to the increasing numbers of international students who seek higher education in the United
State, this research was conducted to discover ways to prepare academic English learners. The
chosen context is Wheaton Academy. 17 students in two different classes were observed and
surveyed. The survey was designed to discover the preparation and the process of learning
English as a second language. Several factors were identified through the collected data:
teaching and learning strategies, support, cultural and affective factors. The results of this
research show that it takes a global village to prepare successful academic English Language
learners; each member of this global village plays his or her part with each other in a
collaborative manner, namely, parents, both ESL and EFL teachers, the host families, all the
teachers and staff teaching and mentoring with international students at Wheaton Academy, etc.

SUCCESSFUL ACADEMIC ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Successful Academic English Language Learners

There are more than 73,000 international students who come to the United States for high
school based on a report published by the Institute of International Education in 2014 (New
Report from IIE Looks at International Students at U.S. High Schools: Students enrolling
directly for diplomas outnumber exchange students, 2014). According to the same report, the
majority of international high school students are enrolled in private institutions, and most of the
nearly 49,000 diploma-seeking students at U.S. high schools are from Asia, with 46% of this
segment coming from China (Dr. Choudaha, 2014).
I am interested in discovering the preparation that international high school students need
to have before coming to the United States and the process of achieving academic English
proficiency and the support they get as English language learners in high school. Research
shows that oral proficiency takes 3 to 5 years to develop, and academic English proficiency can
take 4 to 7 years (Hakuta, Goto, & Witt, 2000). Therefore, this research study looks at two
categories in students preparation and process of English language learning, namely, Basic
Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
(CALP).
How is the term Academic Language Proficiency defined? Krashen and Brown propose
that Academic Language Proficiency consists of two central components: knowledge of
academic language and knowledge of specialized subject matter; related to each component are
strategies that serve to make input more comprehensible and help in the acquisition of academic
language (Krashen & Brown, 2007, p. 1). This implies that two kinds of specialized teachers,
subject teachers and English as Second Language teachers, are needed to provide a holistic
support for a high school where international students are recruited. In this preliminary research,

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three primary areas are discussed: the preparation that international high school students need to
have before coming to the United States, the process of achieving academic English proficiency
in high school, and available support from their school.
Literature review
It is a fact that English as a foreign language (EFL) programs for younger children in
school systems has been a trend throughout the world, and that the number of English teachers
who are using a mixture of traditional and communicative techniques is increasing (Seaman &
Vroom, 2014, pp. 4656). Due to the use of a broad range of techniques nowadays, English
language learners are more well-prepared before going abroad to seek further higher education.
On the other hand, there are also adolescent English language learners who are
immigrants, that come here without much preparation in their English language learning (ELL).
Some public schools that strive to educate large and increasing populations of language-minority
students who are 16- to 20-year-old immigrants in the United States are facing great challenges.
For instance, the results of statewide assessments of the English language learners (ELLs) greatly
affect the amount of federal program funding; furthermore, it is a reality that any program
planning needs to face the constant threat of statewide budget cuts (Rance-Roney, 2009). Even
though I am only focusing on those ELLs who already have had a good foundation in ELL
before coming to the United States, some of the following factors listed influence all the ELLs:
immigration status, quality of educational background, native language, cultural distance from
U.S. culture, expectation of remaining in the U.S or reentering the country of origin, and
economic resources (Rance-Roney, 2009).
A body of research has emerged over the last ten years shedding light on what it takes to
help ELLs succeed in school. Schools with high levels of ELL proficiency tend to have the

SUCCESSFUL ACADEMIC ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

following characteristics: 1.) Schoolwide focus on English language development and ELL
achievement; 2.) Well-trained staff able to address the unique needs of ELL students; 3.)
Consistent and ongoing language support services across all grade levels; 4.) Meaningful
curriculum aligned with state standards and assessments (Preparing English language learners
for academic success, 2007). One essential for an excellent international student program is to
have a great support system with an ELL philosophy stated as an organization. A good list of
questions is suggested to ponder over: Are all international students college bound? What data
points can we use to make good decisions? What supports are in place between revisions? What
can the host family do to support English learning? How can you provide scaffolding for
students? What should an international student homework load be? How will you train and
provide study hours and study skills coaching? Will you provide tutoring support and how will
the tutors be trained (Vishanoff, 2016)?
Context Description
A well-known proverb says, It takes a village to raise a child. Accordingly, it takes a global
village to prepare successful academic ELLs. What is that global village like? It could be
visualized through a well-structured education system. Wheaton Academy is chosen as a
context to conduct this preliminary research on the preparation and the process of ELL. It is a
private non-denominational Christian high school, that is known for being an educational
institution committed to the evangelical Christian faith, located in West Chicago, Illinois.
Charity Renwick, ELL Coordinator and International Student Advisor, has been a great help to
this research. There are 16 students in her Formations of Faith class, 7 boys and 9 girls. Some
students from her Formation of Faith class, as well as other students are also in her other class,

SUCCESSFUL ACADEMIC ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

Discourse & Pragmatics and Foundations of Faith which has 12 students in total, 5 boys and 7
girls.
Methodology. I observed two classes that Ms. Renwick teaches: English Comprehension,
Discourse & Pragmatics and Foundations of Faith. The observation time was 8 hours and 45
minutes. A survey was designed for her students to take in class. In this survey, there are 15
questions in Part I from which I plan to discover the factors that help both their social (BICS)
and academic (CALP) English learning before coming to Wheaton Academy. There are 8
questions in Part II which were designed to discover the factors that strengthen their academic
(CALP) English learning at Wheaton Academy. Ms. Renwick has 17 students in total, but there
are 19 respondents. It means that there were two students that submitted the survey twice. I was
able to track one of students who submitted the survey twice, but I couldnt identify the other
one. It should not affect the analysis much. Since it would be difficult for me to interview
students, Ms. Renwick graciously agreed to have two interviews with me from which I was able
to learn more about how the school supports international ELLs as well as its philosophy
statement.
Data are coded under five categories: 1.) Teaching Strategies coded in purple: this
covers strategies used by school teachers, staff, and the school, such as, teaching instructions,
techniques, contents, feedback, assessment, and collaboration; 2.) Learning Strategies coded in
green: this covers all strategies utilized by students, such as their background knowledge,
following instructions and their participation, and assessment; 3.) Support Factors coded in pink:
this covers all support students receive, such as team based support from the host families,
advisory groups, parent-teacher conferences, activities organized by school, one-on-one support
from a classroom teacher, a friend, or native English speaking friend or classmate, spiritual

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support and technology; 4.) Cultural Factors coded in blue: this covers students cultural
adjustment and transition, life skills, sociocultural learning, service project and internship; 5.)
Affective Factors coded in orange: this covers their feelings toward any interruptions in their
learning process, a sense of belonging being noticed and connected, anxiety, frustration, and
fear toward challenges, issues, and friendship. I am aware of that most of the affective factors
cannot be observe. Therefore, the data collected under this category are limitation.
Significant Features. It is evident that it does takes a global village to prepare
successful academic ELLs just as Ms. Renwick comments that she cant take a lot of credit for it
because they will be here for 4 years, and there are many people that invest in them and
encourage them (Interview #1, 2016, p. 29).
There are 23 questions in total; two of them are short essay questions. There are 8
questions relating to learning strategies, 1 to teaching strategies, 2 to support factors, 2 to cultural
factors, and 2 affective questions. Thus, the results show that before coming to Wheaton
Academy, one third of students start learning English between the ages of 4 to 6, and one third of
them between the ages of 7 to 12. Parents and school teachers play a tremendous role in their
ELL development. A majority of the students learned English from their school teachers; 8 of
them learned from both their parents and their private teachers and practice English with them.
The two main learning strategies are traveling and using social media. In reading, classic
literature and social media feed are used; in listening, movies, television and songs are primary
sources; in writing, taking class notes and journaling are the top ones; in speaking, almost
everyone responded with socializing with English speaking person. What are their motivations?
Having good grades, attending good colleges or universities and having good jobs are important
for them; on the other hand, poor grades, learning environment and pressure are the factors that

SUCCESSFUL ACADEMIC ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

demotivate their learning. All these are their learning experiences before coming to Wheaton
Academy.
After coming to Wheaton Academy, the results show that the subject teachers from
whom they receive tests, exams, and homework are identified as the most helpful factors in their
academic English learning (AEL). More than half of the students noted that the host families
have been the ones that helped their AEL. What brings them joy and what frustrates them in
their AEL? Friendship, small talks with teachers and good grades are the positive factors;
similarly, besides lacking friendship and bad grades are the negative factors which included
loneliness, food and weather which also affect their AEL.
There are several challenges Ms. Renwick identifies in the first interview (Interview
#1, 2016). Since most of the students are academic achievers and top in their class back home,
sometimes it is challenging for them to realize they are not fully prepared yet in their academic
English proficiency. Writing and participation orally in class are highly emphasized in the
American culture, and working as a group tends to be a challenge for them. It might be that
learning a new culture is a process, and that adjusting their values and behaviors accordingly take
time. Another challenge is when students are falling into gaps after completing Ms. Renwichs
class, English Comprehension, Discourse & Pragmatics. The foundation of their AEL is not
strong enough to do well in their regular subject courses, but not bad enough to take her class.
This situation tends demotivate their AEL.
In the field notes, the most obvious trends shown are teaching and learning strategies
which can be identified easily. Ms. Renwicks teaching strategies create a variety of
opportunities for students to participate such as responses from individuals, paired groups or
small groups. Both she and I have the same feeling based on our observation that students do not

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seem to enjoy the group work yet. Successful academic English language learning relies heavily
on both teaching and learning strategies and how each of them interplay in the classroom. It
could be considered as a reciprocal act of giving and receiving, or a reciprocal act of offering and
taking. For instance, Ms. Renwick created a list of ten competences that she uses to guide her
teaching strategies and teaching assessments: a.) reading; 2.) writing skills; 3.) research/citation;
4.) grammar; 5.) vocabulary; 6.) cultural adjustment; 7.) critical thinking/analyzing; 8.)
interpersonal/communication skills (includes: team work, maintaining/initiating conversations,
speech delivery and presentations); 9.) life and learning behaviors (initiative, participation,
engagement, advocacy, homework, grit1); 10.) creative expression. I could see that many of
these competences are incorporated into her teaching strategies. The assumption is that if
students do not learn and practice any of the competences that is taught in class, namely, utilizing
their learning strategies, they are not able to grow that competence effectively.
Conclusion. Wheaton Academy provides a highly structured education system to assist
international students to be successful academic English language learners. The mission of
Wheaton Academy is to nurture growth in their students through relationships, excellence, and
service to the glory of God, and means of accomplishing the mission are Biblical values,
traditional educational standards, innovative curriculum, and caring teacher/student relationship.
(About Us, 2016).
Besides taking regular required subject courses such as English, attending activities the
school organized such as the Service Project Day and the Advisory Group just like any native
high schoolers, it is mandatory for them to take the specialized course, English Comprehension,
Discourse & Pragmatics, taught by Ms. Renwick, and have tutoring support for their homework
1

Adapted from Wheaton Academy Academic Behavioral Report: Self Assessment

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10

after school. There are great collaborations among teachers between subjects and Ms. Renwick.
The Parent-Host Family-Teacher/Director international phone conferences are conducted each
semester to make sure that everyone is on the same page and has the same goal and vision for
their students as ELLs.
This preliminary research can be expended in the future. For instance, prolonged
engagement in the context would discover more stories by interviewing students. Since metacognitive strategies are innate or developed naturall and cannot be taught, it disrupts language
acquisition and content learning. It would be interesting to discover how student monitor and
assess their ELL. If students have not developed the skill of monitoring and assessing their ELL,
are there specialized mentors or coaches who can walk through the journeys with them?
Based on the hypotheses proposed by Krashen and Brown, not all strategies should be
taught to students, because some strategies are acquired like meta-cognitive-related strategies
and some are taught and learned directly like composing process-related strategies (Krashen &
Brown, 2007, pp. 34). It would be interesting to research the views of both teachers and
students on acquired and learned strategies. Another area that could be further researched would
be to compare Wheaton Academy, which is a faith-based institution, with another secular high
school. In doing a comparative study, I may be able to discover the differences of philosophy
and support between these two schools.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to express her appreciation to Dr. Cheri Pierson for introducing and
connecting her with Ms. Charity Renwick, who has generously provided her with teaching
context, the opportunity to observe and survey two classes, and her time for two interviews.
The author

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Chienyu Jade Yi is a current student at Wheaton College Graduate School. She was an
international student when she came to the United States in 1993. The teaching and learning
strategies have been dramatically improved and changed throughout these years. Though this
research is a required preliminary research study for the course INTR 573 Qualitative Research
for Second Language Educators, the results revealed many helpful factors for international
students and schools that receive international students.

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References
About Us. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.wheatonacademy.org/about/mission-vision
Dr. Choudaha, R. (2014, July). Enrollment statistics of international high schools students in the
US. Retrieved from http://www.iie.org/Who-We-Are/News-and-Events/PressCenter/Press-Releases/2014/2014-07-08-New-Report-From-IIE-Looks-At-InternationalStudents-At-US-High-Schools#.V-MgHTorJzo
Hakuta, K., Goto, Y., & Witt, D. (2000, January). How long does it take English learners to attain
proficiency? Retrieved from
http://cmmr.usc.edu/FullText/Hakuta_HOW_LONG_DOES_IT_TAKE.pdf
Interview #1. (2016, September 27).
Krashen, S., & Brown, C. L. (2007). What is Academic Language Proficiency? Retrieved from
http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/articles/krashen_brown_alp.pdf
New Report from IIE Looks at International Students at U.S. High Schools: Students enrolling
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http://www.iie.org/Who-We-Are/News-and-Events/Press-Center/PressReleases/2014/2014-07-08-New-Report-From-IIE-Looks-At-International-Students-AtUS-High-Schools#.V-MgHTorJzo
Preparing English language learners for academic success. (2007, October 30). Retrieved from
http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Instruction/What-research-saysabout-English-language-learners-At-a-glance/Preparing-English-language-learners-foracademic-success.html
Rance-Roney, J. (2009). Best Practices for Adolescent ELLs. Educational Leadership:
Supporting English Language Learners, 66(7), 3237.

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Seaman, A. A., & Vroom, S. J. (2014). Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Teaching English as a

Foreign Lanugage to Children: A Multinational Survey. TESOL Journal, 5(3), 465489.
Vishanoff, B. (2016, April). 12 Essentials of an Excellent International Student Program.
Wheaton Academy. Retrieved from http://wanetschools.org/uncategorized/12-essentialsfor-an-excellent-international-student-program/