The mission of the ESL component of the Writing Program is to help non-native speakers achieve college-level proficiency in English speaking, reading, and writing. Our ESL seminars (WR097 and WR098) prepare students for the challenges they will face in subsequent Writing Seminars (WR100 and WR150) and in the courses they will take throughout their college careers.
The ESL Curriculum
The ESL course sequence--WR 097 and WR 098--teaches students to read critically, speak articulately, and write effectively. The seminars place an emphasis on grammatical knowledge as a basis for effective analytical writing. Students examine cultural differences in strategies for classroom discourse and learn the rhetorical conventions of academic English. Placement in Writing Program courses for students whose first language is not English is based upon placement test results. ESL students who do not advance immediately to WR100 will be placed either in WR097 or WR098. Initial placement in WR097 requires completion of WR098 in the next semester, prior to taking WR100. Students enrolled initially in W 098 proceed thereafter to WR100.
730
Commonwealth Avenue, Room 301, Boston, MA 02215 | phone: 617-358-1500
| fax: 617-358-1505 | email: writing@bu.edu
