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Thanks to the Mexican government's Proyecta 100,000, Western Illinois University recently welcomed 20 students from Mexico to study at the Western English as a Second Language Institute (WESL). The project has "an ambitious and transformational goal of having 100,000 Mexican learners studying in the U.S. as part of a renewed spirit of cooperation between the governments of Mexico and the United States under the Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research (FOBESII)," noted officials from the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation for Development.
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Mexican Students at Western to Study English as Part of Mexican Government-Funded Project

November 20, 2014

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MACOMB, IL — Thanks to the Mexican government's Proyecta 100,000, Western Illinois University recently welcomed 20 students from Mexico to study at the Western English as a Second Language Institute (WESL). The project has "an ambitious and transformational goal of having 100,000 Mexican learners studying in the U.S. as part of a renewed spirit of cooperation between the governments of Mexico and the United States under the Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Innovation and Research (FOBESII)," noted officials from the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation for Development.

According to WESL Institute Director David Bell, the learners—half of whom are university students and the other half university professors—will be at WIU for a few weeks and will study 20 hours of English per week in the areas of grammar, listening, speaking, writing and vocabulary.

"[WIU School of Distance Learning, International Studies and Outreach Executive Director] Richard Carter and I learned about the program while we were attending the Education USA Conference in Washington, D.C., last June," Bell explained. "We are interested in taking part in this program because we are working to increase our international student population to 1,000 students."

Bell added that while the current students will not continue at Western after they each finish the WESL program, it is likely WIU will receive more learners as part of Proyecta 100,000. For Fall 2014, the Mexican government funded 7,500 learners for the project.

Through the Ministry of Education of Mexico, each student is awarded a full scholarship (limited to $3,500 U.S.) to cover a four-week ESL program in the United States.

For more information, contact Bell at (309) 298-1107 or via email at D-Bell@wiu.edu.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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