Content-Based Language Instruction: Investigating the Effectiveness of the Adjunct Model

This article describes the adjunct model of language instruction, in which English/ESL courses are linked with content courses to integrate better the reading, writing, and study skills required for academic success in the university setting. Following a rationale for the adjunct model and a description of its key features as employed in the Freshman Summer Program (FSP) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the findings of two studies carried out at UCLA are presented: (a) former students' evaluation of the program and (b) follow-up interviews with selected ESL students and results of a simulated examination comparing the FSP follow-up students and non-FSP ESL students. The nation's colleges and universities are faced with the mounting challenge of educating a steady stream of underprepared students entering higher education. These incoming students, both from language majority and language minority backgrounds, enter the university lacking the essential skills required to succeed academically, such as the ability to synthesize lecture and text material and to express this information clearly in written assignments and on examinations. Language minority students, in addition to being deficient in academic skills, also may be less proficient in English, thus further limiting their potential for university success. In terms of university admissions, language minority students comprise an ever-increasing segment of the undergraduate population. In the state of California, for example, the number of Hispanic high-school graduates grew from 22,000 in the mid-1960s to 52,000 in the mid-1980s, and the number of Asian high-school