Purpose

The key purpose of the ESL Pathways Advanced Certificate curriculum is to prepare students holistically for the academic, professional and social communities to which they aspire. The ESL Pathways program supports and guides an immigrant’s language and communication needs to integrate into mainstream Canadian society. The program’s intention is to help the student build language and communication skills in a constant interaction with real contexts and communities. The key learning tools and approaches of the curriculum are in the hands of students as well as teachers. The curriculum vision is of rigorous language learning in an empowering context of inquiry and exploration.

The program is designed to be flexible and adaptable. Each course focuses on language acquisition in two skill areas at the target CLB level. All CLB learning outcomes are met in the 8 core activities and additional activities can be developed by the instructor to meet the students’ needs.

The ESL Pathways Advanced Certificate is designed to prepare students to acquire the communication skills to become: a) learners in English language post-secondary academic or professional programs; b) employees in professional or skilled occupations in English-speaking workplace context; and/or c) informed and engaged Canadian and/or global citizens.

The minimum requirement for achievement of an advanced certificate is the completion of the following:

Advanced Certificate:

• ESL Listening & Speaking 9
• ESL Reading & Writing 9

*A student cannot use the same ESL-Pathways course for both the Advanced level certificate and the lower level certificate. 

• ESL Experiential Learning 2

Duration

Total number of contact hours for each language skill course (i.e. Listening & Speaking 8, Reading & Writing 8, Listening & Speaking 9, and Reading & Writing 9) is 120 hours.

The ESL Experiential Learning 2 course is to be completed at the end of the program as a requirement for Certification is 48 hours.

The maximum number of hours required to receive the ESL Pathways Advanced Certificate is 528 hours.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the program, students will be able to:

• Meet the Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing outcomes at CLB 9 in the "Profiles of Ability" columns of the competency outcomes and standards listed in the Canadian Language Benchmarks 2012.
• Communicate effectively in multiple contexts including personal, academic and workplace contexts of high complexity.
• Successfully engage in basic interactions, intercultural communication, and soft skills to function effectively in community, study, and work contexts of high complexity.
• Utilize the following Essential Skills (thinking skills, working with others, computer use and document use) for tasks at moderate to high complexity of high complexity.
• Differentiate and produce a variety of genre types used in personal, academic, and workplace contexts.

Admission Requirements

Program Requirements

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
ELSK 0815	ESL Listening and Speaking 8	4
ELSK 0820	ESL Reading and Writing 8	4
ELSK 0915	ESL Listening and Speaking 9	4
ELSK 0920	ESL Reading and Writing 9	4
ELSK 0905	ESL Experiential Learning 2	1.5
Total Credits		17.5

This guide is intended as a general guideline only. The college reserves the right to make changes as appropriate. 

Evaluation of Student Learning

The assessment model design arises out of an extensive process of consultation with the project expert panelists and research into needs assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment, and resulted in the choice of a Portfolio Based Learning Assessment (PBLA) model which encompasses all three. The assessment model presented here supports an integrated design whereby student needs and a needs assessment cycle are embedded into ongoing assessment. This model also supports instructors in using their own expertise, skills and knowledge in determining student performance.

Assessment rubrics are used to assess throughout a course and provide ongoing feedback on the student’s performance. The rubrics are inserted into the student’s portfolio so that they can be referenced during the consultation periods throughout the course. This gives both the instructor and the student an opportunity to chart performance and to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses.

• The ESL Pathways Assessment model emphasizes formative assessment, whereby: i) assessment is focused on providing feedback to both instructors and students to inform learning; and, thereby, ii) the instructor and student are active agents in assessment.
• Language and communication skills are assessed in the context of the performance of tasks, which are selected to assess the CLB competencies that are to be demonstrated.
• The assessed tasks embed other outcomes (CLB Knowledge and Strategies, Essential Skills, intercultural/soft skills, and genres/EAP) that are assessed implicitly in the performance of the task and explicitly in the formative assessment process. CLB skills-based competencies are assessed discretely with one competency or sub-competency as the focus of a single assessed task.
• Students must demonstrate satisfactory proficiency in each of the four CLB competencies (e.g. interaction, instruction, getting things done, and information) for each skill covered in order to move to the next course level.
• The assessment model supports ongoing needs assessment throughout each course, and assessment directly links learning to identified student needs.
• A student has the opportunity to demonstrate the achievement of each competency at various stages or points in the learning cycle.
• The student must retain all artifacts created in a course so that they are eligible for evaluation at course completion.
• Performance on tasks that are not identified for assessment, and on competencies not listed for assessment, can be used to inform the instructor’s (and student’s) evaluation of a student.

Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR)

Prior learning assessment and recognition is not available for this program.

Transcript of Achievement

The evaluation of learning outcomes for each student is prepared by the instructor and reported to the Student Records Department at the completion of semesters.

The transcript typically shows a letter grade for each course. The grade point equivalent for a course is obtained from letter grades as follows:

Grading Standard

Transcript of Achievement

Grade	Percentage	Description	Grade Point Equivalency
A+	90-100		4.33
A	85-89		4.00
A-	80-84		3.67
B+	76-79		3.33
B	72-75		3.00
B-	68-71		2.67
C+	64-67		2.33
C	60-63		2.00
C-	55-59		1.67
D	50-54	Minimum Pass	1.00
F	0-49	Failing Grade	0.00
S	70 or greater	Satisfactory – student has met and mastered a clearly defined body of skills and performances to required standards	N/A
U		Unsatisfactory – student has not met and mastered a clearly defined body of skills and performances to required standards	N/A
I		Incomplete	N/A
IP		Course in Progress	N/A
W		Withdrawal	N/A
Course Standings
R		Audit. No Credits	N/A
EX		Exempt. Credit Granted	N/A
TC		Transfer Credit

Grade Point Average (GPA)

1. The course grade points shall be calculated as the product of the course credit value and the grade value.
2. The GPA shall be calculated by dividing the total number of achieved course grade points by the total number of assigned course credit values. This cumulative GPA shall be determined and stated on the Transcript at the end of each Program level or semester.
3. Grades shall be assigned to repeated courses in the same manner as courses taken only once. For the purpose of GPA calculation of grades for repeated courses, they will be included in the calculation of the cumulative GPA.