ESL Programs in Calgary: A Comparative Analysis among SAIT, University of Calgary, Mount Royal Univ

ESL Programs in Calgary:

A Comparative Analysis among SAIT, University of Calgary, Mount Royal University and Bow Valley College

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

This merits report compares English as a Second Language (ESL) programs offered by SAIT Polytechnic (SAIT), University of Calgary (U of C), Mount Royal University (MRU) and Bow Valley College (BCV) based on entry requirements, duration, costs, and location. By analysing facts and information, we recommend SAIT is the best choice of EAP program provider for both local and international students, because of easy entry requirements and the lowest cost of each level. Local and international students, who want to improve their English Language for Academic Purpose (EAP) to get into the main program, can choose the best institute from this report.

1. Introduction

1. Purpose Statement

This merits report compares English as a Second Language (ESL) programs offered by SAIT Polytechnic (SAIT), University of Calgary (U of C), Mount Royal University (MRU) and Bow Valley College (BVC) based on entry requirements, duration, costs, and location. Local and international students who want to improve their English Language for Academic Purpose (EAP) to get into the main program can choose the best institute from this report.

2. Rationale

Calgary is a growing city. Immigrants and international students are coming to Calgary for their living and education. Unfortunately, students want to study at post-secondary level in Calgary, but many of them are unable to enroll into their main program because of English language proficiency. Therefore, they have to take an ESL program first. The aim of ESL programs is to assist students to improve their language efficiency and to help student in a full range of curriculum of further education as well as to become a member of Calgarians and Canadian society (Alberta Education,1997). ESL programs provide various English knowledge and skills, for example, listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, and pronunciation (Government of Alberta, 2013). ESL programs are commonly two kinds: Academic ESL program and ESL Only programs (Study in Alberta, 2014). Academic ESL program is known as English for Academic purpose (EAP) program. This program provides students English proficiency to continue their academic education at diploma, degree, and post-secondary level. However, students do not know where they can go to take an ESL program, which institutes can be the best, or what factors they will consider to choose the institutes. According to albertacanada.com (2014), before enrolling in any post-secondary school, students consider four thinks-employers thinking about the program or market value of the program, entrance requirements, cost, and duration. In this report, we compare the EAP program of the four most popular post-secondary institutes of Calgary-SAIT, U of C, MRU, and BVC in terms of entry requirements, duration, cost, and location. We think this comparison gives local and international students an opportunity to choose the right institute for EAP program as well as their future main program.

3. Limitations

In this merits report, we used only online data, no survey or interview was conducted. We had also time and budget constrain, As a result, we were unable to find much information as we wanted.

4. Methodology

All the facts and information for this merits report are collected from internet; especially websites of our chosen four post-secondary institutes. We also use online student handbook and electronic brochure for our information. After compared to four institutes with all facts, we rank them on ordinal order and select the best one. Besides entry requirements, duration, costs, and location, we also keep in mind that the degree of U of C and SAIT has more acceptability than MRU and BVC to the employers. Therefore, we also consider the market value of the institutes to choose the number one institute.

5. Key words

In this report, we use some key words that need to be defined, like ESL, EAP, ELL, ELF, and local students.

ESL: English as a Second Language. Non-native speakers use and study English through ESL programs to improve conversational English, grammar, reading, listening comprehension, writing, and vocabulary.

EAP: English for Academic Purpose. This program is a comprehensive intensive program designed to prepare academically qualified students whose native language is not English for the purpose of admission to the University's degree or diploma programs. The EAP program is for prospective international, Permanent Resident or Canadian students whose level of English language proficiency is at a high-intermediate to low-advanced level of fluency.

ELF: English Language Foundation. It is an EAP program offered by SAIT Polytechnic.

ELL: English Language Learning. This is also an EAP program offered by Bow Valley College.

Local students: Local students refer the landed immigrants, refugees or any Canadian born citizen whose first language is not English.

2. Comparison

1. Entry requirement (This part is done by Jun Jin Kang [Jason])

2. Duration (This part is done by Xian Fang [Xian])

3. Costs (This part is done by Gebremeskel Tesfaldet Haile [Gebre])

4. Location (This part is done by Sk Md Hasanuzzaman [Hasan])

Calgary has four quadrants: Northwest (NW), Northeast (NE), Southwest (SW), and Southeast (SE). These quadrants, including downtown area, include a mix of residential types. It is generally observed that people are more affluent in NW and SW quadrants. On the other hand, the two eastern quadrants contain the highest diversity. Moreover, people live in NE quadrant are mostly immigrants origin. Young immigrants prefer to live in an area by considering roots (i.e. strong family, ethno-cultural attachments) and routes (Hébert & Lee, 2009). Therefore, location is an important factor for choosing an ESL institute. A location can be better if anyone reach there easily by any mode of transportation. Among the four institutes, SAIT and U of C are located in NW and MRU is in SW quadrant; BVC is situated downtown.

In terms of accessibility through public transportations, BVC has the easiest access by the c-train and buses. The Calgary City Centre is very close to BVC and needs only 4 minutes by walk to reach (Google Maps, 2014a). SAIT is also close to downtown, and the c-train and buses are available. In addition, from the Calgary City Centre, it takes only 8 to 9 minutes drive to reach at SAIT (Google Maps, 2014b). On the other hand, U of C and MRU both take 11 to 14 minutes drive from the Calgary City Centre (Google Maps, 2014c; 2014d); but U of C is near to the c-train station and bus route. On the contrary, MRU have no accessibility through the c-train; only bus routes are available and it takes around 30 minutes from the City Centre (Google Maps, 2014d).

Compared to location of the four post-secondary institutes, it seems BVC has the most excellent location. SAIT is also located in a good place.

3. Recommendation and Conclusion

By considering all the facts and information, we want to figure out which institute is the best for EAP program. We have come up a solution by doing a simple mathematics and rank the four institutes in an ordinal order. We give a score to every institute for each factor according to the easiest or shortest or lowest acceptability. For example, SAIT has the easiest entry requirement, so we put 1 score against SAIT. Again, we give 4 to U of C, as it has the hardest requirements. Finally, we find out the average score (mean value) of each factor for each institute and then we rank the first choice whose score is the lowest.

Table 3.1 shows BVC is the best for the local students as the average score (1.75) of BVC is the lowest. Similarly, SAIT and MRU are on the second position with average score 2.

On the other hand, Table 3.2 shows both SAIT and Mount Royal are on the first position as both of them have the lowest average score 2. Therefore, for the international students, SAIT and MRU are the best.

Finally we recommend SAIT is the best choice of EAP program provider for both local and international students because of its easy entry requirement and the lowest cost of each level. We also consider the highest market value of degree of SAIT to draw our conclusion.

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