How are Undergraduate ESL students placed at YSU?
All students who enter YSU have to take an English Placement Test. Students educated in the American system are tested at the Writing Center. Students educated outside the American system either take the standard placement exam, or are tested independently at the start of the semester by the ESL Director. This placement test is in addition to the TOEFL test. International students and non-native English speakers in the country for less than one year must score the university standard on the TOEFL test in order to be admitted to YSU in the first place. We are flexible with the students who have gone to U.S. schools for a few years. Many of these students would benefit from ESL instruction, but others have been here so long their problems are not ESL problems. Because they have an American diploma, they take the regular placement test and may be assigned to English 1540 class or to an ESL class, depending on the sorts of errors they make. Moreover, students who grow up in an English-medi
