GRANTS AWARDED TO THE ESL PROGRAM
1995 to the Present

2005-2007
Supporting Generation 1.5: The Next Wave of Language Minority Students

Grantor
New Jersey Commission on Higher Education
Education of Language Minority Grants (ELMS)
Award Amount:
$63,806: 2005-2006
$50,290: 2006-2007
Institutional Commitment:
$142,792: 2005-2006
$136,003: 2006-2007

Supporting Generation 1.5: The Next Wave of Language Minority Students

A growing number of language minority college students can be described as “Generation 1.5.” These are bilingual students who either immigrated at an early age or grew up entirely in the United States. The ESL Program at New Jersey City University proposes to develop a program to identify 1.5 students and provide academic support services to ensure their success in university classes. In addition, the project will present faculty development workshops to sensitize content area faculty to the needs of 1.5 students and offer techniques beneficial to this growing population. The following are the components of the project:

• Develop an instrument to identify the 1.5 population and identify language needs.
  
  
• Administer the instrument in content area courses.
  
  
• Develop a specialized tutoring program to support the academic success of 1.5 students in content area coursework.
  
  
• Develop technological resources to serve the 1.5 population.
  
  
• Develop a web site to offer online tutoring and support materials.
  
  
• Offer workshops for content area faculty on the needs of 1.5 students and techniques for the classroom.
  
  
• Conduct a study of students participating in the 1.5 support services program versus a control group that did not receive services.

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Grantor
New Jersey Commission on Higher Education
Education of Language Minority Grants (ELMS)
Award Amount:
$67,370: 1998-1999
$36,290: 1999-2000
Institutional Commitment:
$52,829: 1998-1999
$33,605: 1999-2000

This two-year grant will put interactive technology into the hands of language minority students and their teachers so that courses, support services, and other resources can be accessed online, thus enabling the ESL Program to better equip its language minority students for the technology-rich environment found at the University and in the American workplace.

In order to carry out this objective, four distinct types of activities were carried out during the 1998-99 year of operation:

1. establishing a website for the ESL Program that will serve as an information hub, with links to the three proposed online activities and other related resources;
2. developing an online version of the Fundamentals of Communication I-ESL (FC I) course;
3. creating an online version of the ESL literary magazine, Second Stories;
4. piloting an online placement test to replace the current written grammar test.
During the 1999-2000 year of operation, students and faculty will be trained to maintain and continue to build the ESL Program website and its links.

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Grantor:
New Jersey Commission on Higher Education
Education of Language Minority Grants (ELMS) Program
Award Amount:
$49,153
Institutional Commitment:
$205,523

The purpose of this one-year grant was to continue to successfully mainstream LEP students into the academic, social, and professional life of the College and the community.

Three types of activities were carried out in order to meet this objective:

1. creating of two academic support courses with ESL sections, Computer as a Tool (CAT) and Orientation to College (OTC);
2. the creation of workshops and instructional modules (teacher-made materials) for students on how to succeed in three critical areas: social/personal, academic, and professional;
3. expansion of holdings of the ESL Resource Center with an emphasis on acculturation.

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Grantor:
New Jersey Commission on Higher Education
Education of Language Minority Grants (ELMS)
Award Amount:
$84,203
Institutional Commitment:
$299,640

This grant was based on the recognition that second language instruction needed to be coupled with computer literacy training of limited English proficient (LEP) students in order to help prepare them for the workplace of the 21st century, with its growing emphasis on sophisticated computer technology.

To meet this need, three specific activities were carried out:

1. a two-phase plan for language instruction through advanced computer literacy training;
2. the collaborative creation of multimedia documents that used the newly-acquired computer literacy;
3. the training of ESL faculty and other faculty to create their own multimedia documents.

The technology of the ESL/ML Computer Language Learning Center, which was established in 1994 through Equipment Leasing Fund (ELF) monies, was effectively developed, and changes in the ESL Program curriculum were introduced to reflect the need to increase student familiarity with the Internet.