An Intensive Academic English Course for Generation1.5 ELLs Bound for Postsecondary Studies: Curriculum Design, Development, and Implementation

Abstract

Immigrants and the children of immigrants who have completed their schooling in Canadian school settings, commonly referred to as Generation 1.5, are increasingly identified in the research literature as academically at risk due to inadequately developed academic language proficiency and learning strategies. This article describes the design, development, and implementation of a curriculum that targets the academic needs of these students as they transition from high school to university. A thematically integrated design is adopted for the purposes of contextualizing the academic demands of science and engineering, business, and social sciences and humanities. Preliminary insights from a prototype iteration of the curriculum are presented.