AACC students must take six credits of English to receive their associate degrees, starting this semester.

Up until last spring, students could test into English 121, an accelerated three-credit course, and skip English 111 and 112.

From now on, everyone has to take both English 101 and 102. Meanwhile the college will phase out English 111 and 112.

English 101 and English 102 will be less literature focused and more rhetoric-oriented than English 111 and 112, according to English Department Chair Dave Meng.

“Almost since I’ve been here it was always a feeling that the literary-focused writing courses, 111 and 112, [were] kind of outdated, that we should be moving more toward a rhetoric focus,” Meng said.
Students with high school GPAs lower than 2.6 will take English 101A for three credits, along with a two-credit supplementary course, ENG 099.

Meng said the new course structure will cut back on the number of non-credit developmental courses required of students. Those courses can slow down a student’s progress toward graduation.

“Studies show that students, when they have to take several developmental courses, their completion rates are low,” Meng said. “A lot of students will just drop out.”

English professor Simon Ward said he supports the new structure.

“Personally, I’m all for it,” Ward said. “Effective communication is something everyone needs to strive toward. If we can [impress] those skills and make sure that the learning is lasting, then I think it’s a positive thing.”

Some students disagreed.

“It’s going to help some students and it’s going to hurt others,” first-year computer science student Joshua Karbett said about the change. “Actually, I don’t know if it’s a clear-cut answer here. Personally I think I would benefit from it because I’m a more analytical person … but I think someone else who would be on the flip side, I think that would hurt them more.”

“It’s a new system,” third-year media productions student Rafael Garcia-Mendez said. “It might fix some of the old problems, [or] it might make it worse. … They’re going to have to test it out first.”

But Assistant Dean of English, Literacy and Communications Danny Hoey said although these new courses may be challenging, students will get plenty of help from the faculty.