| The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of class schedule format on the academic achievement of students of English as a Second Language (ESL) at Utah Valley State College. The mean scores of tests taken by ESL students were evaluated in the contexts of four different class schedule formats: seven and a half week daily classes held for one hundred minutes, ten week daily classes held for seventy-five minutes, traditional fifteen week classes held for fifty minutes and fifteen week alternating day classes held for either seventy-five minutes or one hundred minutes. The tests used to measure student achievement in this study were the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), the Michigan Test of Aural Comprehension (MTAC), the Compass English as a Second Language Test (CESL), and the Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) and Compass Writing Skills (CWS) tests for advanced level ESL students. Data was gathered from selected fall, spring, and summer semesters covering the years of 1993-2005, which were reflective of the class schedule formats being studied.;The results of the study showed that for the CESL tests and the CWS test no significant differences were found for the variable time where the Prob>F was at.05 when controlling for the covariates: ethnicity, gender, and level. However, the results of the study did show that the several significant differences were found for the MTELP/MTAC Composite, the MTELP Composite, MTAC and DRP for the variable time where the Prob>F was at.05 when controlling for the covariates: ethnicity, gender, and level. The differences identified for the covariates ethnicity and level were significant with the Prob>F at.01. The results for ethnicity were viewed with caution due to the limited number of scores available in the sample for Middle Eastern, African, and Polynesian students.;This study will help instructors and program administrators of ESL programs better understand how class time schedules influence the academic achievement of ESL students. It can also assist in the planning and scheduling of classes so as to allow for more effective and efficient use of instructional time. While many qualitative studies of this issue have been done, this quantitative study provides an opportunity to view the effects of time through the objective lens of reliable professionally accepted standardized tests, which measure ESL student achievement. In addition, this study fills the need to have more quantitative-data-focused studies available to respond to the question of the influence of time and how it is organized for instructional purposes on student achievement. |
