This session will provide a brief description of how embedded academic English support and best practices in course design are being used to create a first year program at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Vantage College to enable international students to transition directly into the second year of an Arts or Science degree at UBC. With the first cohort of students arriving in August 2014, the UBC Vantage College program is targeted at academically strong students who require additional English support. UBC Vantage College is conceived as a “living laboratory” that promotes pedagogical innovation, a customized curriculum and a flexible learning model. This customized curriculum consists of two streams built upon existing first year UBC credit courses in Arts (Psychology, Geography, Political Science) or Science (Physics, Chemistry, Math, Computer Science, and Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences). Each stream also includes courses in Academic Reading and Writing that are designed to meet the specific language practices of each discipline. The UBC Vantage College program connects these existing courses with a lecture series that explores multidisciplinary themes, includes enriched tutorials and integrated academic English support, and culminates with a capstone research project that includes a student-led cross-disciplinary conference. All credit coursework is taught by UBC faculty with support from academic English instructors. A pedagogy of multiliteracies that acknowledges the diversity of the international student body, combined with smaller class sizes, cross-disciplinary collaboration and experiential learning, results in fully-embedded language instruction throughout the students’ first year experience. Come to this roundtable to hear more about the UBC Vantage College International Program and to share your own experiences with supporting international students’ transition into first year programs.
