Intensive English Program (IEP)
History of ELI by Terry Ceballos, Student Life Advisor
Before the creation of the ELI, UTA had 2 English classes for the international students who attended UTA. These classes were general (reading/writing, grammar/oral skills together). Teachers were graduate students from linguistics. After Dr. Feigenbaum came to UTA, he developed the idea of establishing the ELI. It was established by him in 1980.
He founded the ELI with three goals in mind. First, to teach English and other kinds of skills to the international students. Secondly, to provide opportunities for observation and preparation to teachers who teach English as a second language. Thirdly, to provide financial support for the linguistics graduate students.
The first classes of the ELI began in the summer of 1980. There were 2 teachers, 12 students (one from Thailand, two from Middle Asia, and the rest from Latin America), 2 levels, and 20 hours of instruction per week. Classes were in the mornings. Although their English abilities were all different, the students couldn't be separated into levels because at that time, there were only two teachers. The second ELI course was given in the following summer, that of 1981. In the fall of 1981, ELI began regular courses. Then the numbers of students and teachers started to rise.
With this increase in the number of students, another change occurred in the program. The class hours were changed to the afternoon because the ELI found it difficult to find the extra classrooms it needed for the morning hours.
In the early years, there were some difficulties in maintaining the ELI. Since this was a new program, it was not known by many people. The ELI advertised in Dallas and Ft. Worth. Not being known caused another problem for Dr. Feigenbaum--it was hard to attract quality teachers as well as quality students. It was tougher for him to acquire the teachers for the students because he couldn't promise anything permanent to the teacher. You see, the number of teachers needed depended on the number of students enrolled. If the enrollment was high, more teachers were needed. If the enrollment went down, fewer teachers were hired. This is still the way the ELI operates today. The only income the ELI has is the tuition of the students. (In fact, in the spring of 1998, three teachers had to be let go because enrollment was down considerably.)
Teachers were hired on a semester by semester basis. The good teachers who were hired were usually hired again the following semester. These quasi- permanent teachers made the program better because they developed the ELI's own teaching policy and schedule.
The teachers of the ELI in those early days were not considered UTA employees. They had to pay their own taxes and social security, had no benefits (health insurance, retirement, etc.) could not check books out of the library, or use the activity building, etc. This made life hard on the teachers, especially if they wanted to get credit or a new vehicle, or a house, for example. In order to do these things, you had to have a permanent job, but you didn't have one.
In addition to this their pay checks were sometimes not ready for them on pay. It usually had to do with some paper work that Continuing Education, the department we were in at that time, had not done. If the person "responsible" for their checks did not act responsibly, they were told that they would have to "wait until next month." Then in the Fall of 1987, ELI teachers finally received recognition as UTA employees and were allowed to have benefits and use UTA facilities.
In 1989, Steve Lewis became director of the ELI. Although Dr. Feigenbaum was no longer a part of the ELI, he continued his work at UTA. He continued and still continues to advise and mentor those in the ELI.
Since those early days, the ELI has continued to grow and develop. The ELI started to acquire computers. Before the computers, everything-registration, attendance, etc.-was done by hand. The computers made life a lot easier and things could get done more quickly. Then in the fall of 1991, the positions of Assistant Director, Student Life Advisor, Academic Advisor, and Audio-Visual Coordinator were formed. Previous to this, there was no one designated to help students in those various areas.
Not only did the ELI grow and develop, but it also changed department locations. The ELI was first located in Continuing Education. Then it was placed in the Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics. Finally, in 1991 when Foreign Languages and Linguistics split into two separate entities, the ELI was placed in the Department of Linguistics.
In the fall of 1992, one of the teachers, Kathleen Marshall, produced the first ELI newsletter, but the problem was that the newspaper didn't come out till the end of the semester and much of the news was old. Terry took this idea of the newspaper and created the Intensive English Update. She changed the format of the newsletter, that is, she put the focus on only the ELI, its students and employees, and related items. In addition, she took over total production of the newsletter. The first semester she had no student help. It took around 40 hours to produce one newsletter. Then in the summer of 1993, a student staff was formed. Working on the newsletter gave students an extra opportunity to use their English and meet other people, including Americans.
The ELI expanded into having a computer lab. According to Aaron, the first audio-visual coordinator, work on the First lab in room 10 of Trimble Hall began in January 1993 and work on the second began in January 1994. Aaron worked hard to make the computer lab what it is today. Students have e-mail, access to the Internet, many programs to use, etc. Bill Sanchez, Aaron's successor, has continued to improve the ELI computer lab.
Another addition to the ELI in 1994 were the positions of the grammar/writing, reading, and oral skills coordinators. It was and still is the responsibility of the coordinators to oversee the classes in their skill area, the skills taught, the materials used, and the teachers teaching that skill. The coordinators have proven to be a valuable asset to the program and to the students. They have improved and strengthened the courses of the ELI.
The early 1990's also saw the ELI branch into two different areas. One is the ITA (International Teaching Assistants). This program is for those international students who will be teaching assistants. This program is designed to help improve the pronunciation of the teaching assistants so that the students in the courses will be able to understand the teaching assistant. The other program is the GESP, Graduate English Skills Program. It is for students who have been accepted into a graduate program at UTA but who still need work on their English.
All throughout the years, the student enrollment has grown enough except for 1998 due to the Asian money crisis, so that the ELI has had the money to gradually make these necessary improvements to the ELI.
As you can see, the ELI has grown and expanded from its humble beginnings. Some things are still the same as in the beginning, but others have changed. We hope to continue growing and providing quality English courses to our clients and our students.
- © 2008 University of Texas
at Arlington
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