Reading Instruction for College Level Foreign Students

In his article, The Problem of the Advanced Student in American English, 1 Schwab has stated succinctly the needs of foreign students who have reached or passed the operational level (defined by him as a person who can converse with natives, order food in a restaurant, purchase a railroad ticket, understand and give directions; and who can conceivably employ simple structural patterns in his writing and listen with comprehension to informal speech). Schwab points out, quite rightly, that this level is insufficient for pursuing academic work. What I want to do here is describe for you what we in Hawaii are currently doing in the area of reading instruction to raise our students above this operational level to a higher one. All non-native speakers of English applying to the University are given a reading test2 by the English Language Institute. This test yields four scores: vocabulary, comprehension, speed, and a total reading score (this is a derived score from vocabulary plus speed). Raw scores are then converted to stanines. On the basis of the scores, students are classified in four ways: exempt (stanines 7, 8, and 9); our course ELI 72 (stanines 4, 5, and 6); ELI 71 (stanines 2 and 3); and not admissible (stanine 1). When classifying, we pay particular attention to the vocabulary and comprehension scores, giving emphasis to comprehension. As would be expected, a given individual's scores tend to fall within one or two stanine ranges for all four sub-scores.