Cultivating Successful Students in a Culturally Diverse Classroom

In 2018, Gateway Community College reported that of its 5950 students who enrolled that year, 49% had classified themselves as minority. Roughly 28% of those students reported speaking a language other than English in the home setting.( 1 ) Developing course material and assignments that assist all students in the first semesters of a healthcare program are difficult. Successfully accomplishing this task with students whose first language is not English adds to that level of difficulty. This study examined the global classroom achievements of first semester respiratory program students when additional vocabulary and purposeful terminology assignments are given, where the concentrated emphasis is on those students who speak English as a second language.