Case, Emerson D.

About the author: Emerson D. Case earned his Ph.D. from Ball State University and is currently an Assistant Professor of English and Linguistics at California State University, Bakersfield. His research and teaching interests focus on second language acquisition theory, teaching English to speakers of other languages, and second language writing theory.

Making the Transition From an Intensive English Program to Mainstream University Courses. An Ethnographic Study

2004 0-7734-6353-4
With the globalization of English and the exponential growth in the number of foreign students enrolled in American universities and intensive English programs, understanding the processes that foreign students go through as they make the transition from intensive English program to mainstream university classes becomes extremely important.

This study is the first one to use a holistic, ethnographic approach to see the transition process from the perspective of the students themselves, over an extended period of time, as the transition is in the process of occurring. It examines the experiences of six foreign students studying in an American university as they made the transition from an Intensive English Program (IEP) into mainstream classes at a medium-sized Midwestern university. Using ethnographic methodological means, the study provides a holistic examination of the transition process as that transition occurred over an extended period of time.