Applied Science University has set itself apart with the introduction of higher English language benchmarks for its students.  Over the last year, our language specialists from New Zealand, with the support of the English team, have overhauled the entire ASU English programme. New Foundation courses for ASU’s upcoming joint degree programmes with British universities have also been designed to improving students’ language and academic skills for university study and future careers.  The team have introduced a developmental approach to teaching academic discourse to better enable ASU students to be successful at university.  The new methodology is used in American Freshman College Writing programmes and based on years of research (see Reynolds, Dolmage, Bizzell, & Herzberg’s Bedford Bibliography, 2011).

ASU English lecturers aim to move from a surface to a deep approach to learning by engaging students and requiring them to tackle higher order thinking problems, while moving from Basic Interpersonal Communication to Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency. The focus in ASU English classes is moving from teacher-directed to student-centered interactive learning, and students are already responding well to this. ASU Director of Foundation and English Delivery Services, Garth Johnson, said, “The ‘wow moments,’ when our students realize how much they have achieved after successfully applying critical reading and thinking skills to their own research and writing, have been very encouraging.”