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Commanding English at 25: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Laurene L. Christensen
Graduate Instructor in Commanding English
The academic year 1980-81 marked the official opening of the Commanding English program. The program was described as a “two-quarter integrated package of courses that would strengthen the nascent communication of non-traditional students. The purpose of the package is to enable the student to develop a command of English in all modes of communication—hence its title—Commanding English” (Gidmark, cited in Moen, 1980, p. 8).
Twenty-five years later, a look back to the early documents of the Commanding English program reveals that while some elements of the program have changed, the mission remains the same: to provide an access point to the University of Minnesota for multilingual students who need additional language support.
Commanding English was initially piloted as a program “for a group composed of students from south Vietnam, Laos, Nigeria, Yugoslavia, France, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Kuwait” (Moen, 1980, p. 10). This group became known as “the International group” when additional separate programs were developed for Chicano-Latino students as well as for students specifically from Southeast Asia.
This feature of offering distinct sections for students based on ethnicity is no longer a part of the program; indeed, the students themselves have changed. While early Commanding English cohorts were primarily Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese, current Commanding English sections are filled with students from Somalia, Ethiopia, and Oromia, in addition to students from Vietnam, Thailand, Tibet, and Cambodia, among others. With roughly 40 to 70 students enrolled in Commanding English each year, the program has seen at least 1,000 students find an entryway to the University of Minnesota.
One of the strengths of the early Commanding English program, according to Norman Moen, editor of the General College newsletter, was the program’s founding director, Dr. Sandra Dylla Flake. Moen (1980) suggested that Flake’s strength was that “as Director of the Skills Center, she was able to bring into the team a group of teaching associates and tutors, to train them for working with the students, and to monitor their work” (p. 11).
Over the past 25 years, the Commanding English program has had three directors, each of whom has left her mark on the program. After Sandra Flake, Susan Boucher directed the program. During her tenure, Boucher was responsible for conducting an extensive curriculum evaluation, which resulted in a content-based focus to the curriculum. Previously, many courses were skills focused, including courses such as “Improving Spelling and Punctuation” and “Vocabulary Improvement” (Flake, 1981). These courses were subsequently combined to form a new “Grammar Workshop” paired with the General College (GC) basic writing lab course.
Finally, in the early 1990s, Robin Murie took over directorship of the program. Under Murie’s leadership, Commanding English expanded through the postsecondary educational options program to include high school bridge programs at three urban Twin Cities high schools: Edison High School, Roosevelt High School, and Washburn High School. Commanding English in the high schools has served another nearly 400 students, many of whom continue on to further studies at the University of Minnesota.
After 25 years, the Commanding English program, like all programs in the General College, is anticipating transition at a result of the University of Minnesota’s strategic positioning process. Although the program has documented success for multilingual students at the University of Minnesota, the exact future of the program remains unclear. Robin Murie states, “We have been around for 25 years helping students find a door into the university. Our job is easy—we hold the door open. It is tremendously rewarding to help students find their way through the next four or five years. As things transition, we will look for ways to keep that door open for these talented Minnesotans” (personal communication, October 7, 2005).
References
Flake, S. D. (1981). Commanding English: A communications skills program offered to
Southeast Asian and other non-native speakers of English, 1980-1981.
Minneapolis, MN: General College Archives, University of Minnesota.
Moen, N. W. (1980). Research and publication in General College.
General College Newsletter, 25(2).
About the Author:
Laurene Christensen received her B.A. in English from the University of North Dakota in 1993. She earned an M.A. in English from Portland State University in 2000, and an M.A.-TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) in 2002, also from Portland State University. Currently, Laurene teaches reading and composition in the Commanding English program in the General College at the University of Minnesota. She is also a doctoral candidate in Education Policy and Administration, where she is researching innovative methods of language teaching and learning.
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Laurene Christensen
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