Clara-Meretan Kiah/Staff Writer
clara-meretan@news.com
The University will launch a full-immersion English-speaking program next year to help international students adapt to learning in an American classroom setting.
Over the summer, the University announced a 15-year partnership with Shorelight Education, a company which funds and manages globalization projects at universities, to create the FIU Global First-Year Program.
The program will provide undergraduate international students with a six- or 12-month-long intensive English-speaking course and a living community in the residence halls at the Modesto A. Maidique Campus during their first year at the University.
The idea came about after the University noticed international students struggled even when they scored high on the Test of English as a Foreign Language, which indicates a student’s English-speaking level as part of the admissions process into American universities.
Even when international students score high on the TOEFL, they sometimes don’t function well in American classroom settings, according to Provost Emeritus Douglas Wartzok.
The program is designed to help international students adjust to speaking conversational English on a regular basis. It also will help them understand how an American classroom style works and how to interact with the professor and other students during classroom discussion, a practice which is not common in other countries.
“Perhaps the greatest difference from how university classes work here and from Spain is the importance of attendance and participation,” said international student Gonzalo Llanes, a senior majoring in international relations. “In Spain, you’re usually required just to attend exams, and professors rarely have close interactions with students.”
Plans for the program are not yet finalized, according to Vice President for Academic Affairs Elizabeth Bejar, but the English course will involve personalized English instruction and possibly a study group after each day where students can review material covered in class in their own language.
This English course is not for credit and will be taken along with 15 credits of University Core Curriculum classes.
Participating international students will be required to live in the dorms during the program, although the program itself is not mandatory.
Plans for the dorm community include field trips around Miami, during which international students will have the chance to bond with each other and get to know the city and its culture, according to Bejar.
“I personally like the idea of creating the community, since international students living on campus might be otherwise driven to interact only with people of their similar background,” said Llanes. “I think integration is very important, especially at the beginning.”
The FIU Global First-Year Program is set to launch in fall 2015 with 25 to 50 international students.
International students pay out-of-state tuition, which is currently $18,905 for a full year. Bejar said the 12-month program sets tuition for students in the program at $23,000, so they would pay about $4,100 more than regular international students.
However, as the program progresses and gains popularity, scholarships are expected to open up for international students to help cover the extra cost.
Bejar said it’s the University’s responsibility, as part of the international community of South Florida, to create a more welcoming and enriching university experience for international students with the FIU Global First-Year Program.
“What we have experienced is that we have international students who come, but they tend to cluster together in their own language, and our regular students from the South Florida area don’t learn from them and their experiences,” said Bejar. “So we want to be able to broaden that for all of our students.”
