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The Developmental English Program
Like other universities, colleges and junior colleges all across America, the University of Guam offers many of its new students a Developmental English Program. The purpose of the program is to prepare these students for success in the English courses that will follow as well as success in the other courses that they will be taking at the University.
The Developmental English Program at the University has two, actually three (four?) components.
EN 085, Fundamentals of English
The first component is EN 085, Fundamentals of English, a classroom course that meets twice a week for a total of three hours. In their classrooms, students and teachers focus their attention on writing and the words/grammar of Standard English. Using the words and grammar that they know and are learning, students frequently write compositions and, as the semester progresses, it is usually easy to see that these student compositions are getting better and better and that the EN 085 students are becoming better and better prepared for the writing they will be doing in future English and other University courses.
EN 085 L, Fundamentals of English Lab
The second component of the program is EN 085 L, the Lab course that goes with
EN 085. This course, however, is actually divided into two components.
The first component of the Lab is silent, individual, independent reading practice in the University’s Reading Lab. All Lab students are given ongoing reading assignments involving reading materials that reflect their own reading levels. These assignments are not too hard and not too easy but get more and more advanced as the semester progresses. The goal, of course, is to get all EN 085 students better prepared for the reading they will be doing in their future courses at the University.
The second Lab component is a two-hour class that EN 085L students attend once a week. This class integrates the writing work that they have been doing in their EN 085 classroom with the reading work they have been doing in the EN 085L Reading Lab. Typically, students read about something, think about it, talk about it in class, and finally write about that something and their thoughts about it.
In fact, though, some people might say that there are really three components within the EN 085 Lab program. The Lab program also offers tutoring service to help students improve their English and their writing. Typically, students who are being tutored will meet individually (sometimes in small groups) with an English tutor maybe once a week, will do extra writing, and will receive personalized help from the tutor. This tutoring service is available to all students and is required for some.
Finally, the University’s Developmental English Program is here for all UOG students who will benefit from it. We want all students to succeed at the University and later in life.
For many new UOG students, the Developmental English Program is their stepping-stone to success at the University. | 
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