PLaCE Program Summary AY25-26 (FA25 Version)
About the Program
The PLaCE program builds bridges of understanding through language and cultural exchange. Our core mission is to support international students at Purdue as they develop the academic, linguistic, and cultural competencies needed to participate fully in university life and compete for graduate study and employment opportunities. To achieve this mission, PLaCE offers undergraduate courses (SCLA 11000 and 11100), English language testing, and non-credit support options (English Boost). PLaCE also collaborates with partners across the university to support internationalization efforts and to provide specialized English language and intercultural support for international students and groups.
Foundational Credit Courses for Undergraduate International Students
PLaCE offers two 3-credit undergraduate courses:
- SCLA 11000: Language and Cultural Exchange I: Self in Context
- SCLA 11100: Language and Cultural Exchange II: Texts and Contexts
These courses help qualifying international undergraduate students to successfully transition to and navigate through their first year of university, and to prepare for the Cornerstone sequence of courses (SCLA 10100 and 10200) or other Written and Oral Communication courses. In Academic Year 2025–26 to date, PLaCE enrolled 240 students in 19 sections of SCLA 110 and 22 students in 2 sections of SCLA 111, across West Lafayette and Indianapolis locations. Fall 2025 marks the second year that PLaCE has offered SCLA 110 and 111 courses at Indianapolis.
English Boost: (non-credit) Language Coaching, Short Courses, Workshops, and Conversation Clubs
Fall 2025 marked the first semester that PLaCE transitioned from GoSignMeUp to WC Online (WCO) as the administrative registration platform for its non-credit offerings, including Short Courses, Workshops, and Conversation Clubs. Language Coaching was first added to the suite of PLaCE’s non-credit offerings in Summer 2025, coinciding with the launch of the new “English Boost” branding.
In Fall 2025, a total of 1,395 English Boost appointments were completed by 208 WCO-registered Purdue international graduate students, undergraduate students, and visiting scholars.
Conversation Clubs
1:1 Language Coaching
Short Courses and Workshops
Language Testing for Program Evaluation and Course Exemption
To support its core educational mission, PLaCE administers the Assessment of College English—International (ACE-In), a locally developed and rated internet-based academic English proficiency test, as both a pre- and post-test for international undergraduate students enrolled in SCLA 110 and SCLA 111 courses. In addition to pre–post tracking of SCLA 110–111 students' proficiency gains for program evaluation (Cheng & Li, 2023), the ACE-In has also been used to inform high-stakes administrative decisions on exemption from SCLA 111 (for the top students in SCLA 110) or the two-course sequence (e.g., summer testing of incoming students admitted with no proficiency test scores).
Besides the ACE-In, PLaCE administers a free, publicly available internet-based vocabulary test as a baseline measure of receptive vocabulary knowledge for students in SCLA 110. In Fall 2025, PLaCE administered the ACE-In to 180 undergraduate students and the vocabulary test to 215 students. In total, 19 PLaCE instructor-raters completed 467 ACE-In Listen & Repeat ratings, 466 Oral Reading ratings, and 638 Speaking & Listening ratings from June to December 2025. These totals include third ratings, which were conducted when the first two independent, blind-rating raters disagreed.
Student and Staff Accomplishments
- Thirteen of the 14 undergraduate students in Dr. Nadezda Pimenova's SCLA 110 section volunteered to serve as peer judges at Purdue's Fall 2025 Undergraduate Research Expo, collectively evaluating a total of 34 in-person and virtual presentations.
- As an "Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation" (IMPACT) Fellow in Fall 2025, PLaCE Lecturer Dr. Haiyan Li completed multiple design sprints and peer consultation sessions. She modified SCLA 110 curriculum with clearer learning outcomes and authentic assessments.
- As an AI Academy Fellow (Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning), Dr. Haiyan Li participated in a week-long workshop (August 18–22, 2025) focused on developing AI-assisted course enhancements for SCLA 110 and SCLA 111. Through co-developing student activities and training materials, she contributed to Purdue's cross-disciplinary faculty learning community on AI ethics and application.
- PLaCE staff delivered (or are scheduled to deliver) a total of 16 academic presentations at university, regional, national, and international conferences. These contributions bring the total number of PLaCE-related presentations and publications to 98 since PLaCE's inception in 2014.
- Dr. Haiyan Li received a 2025–2026 Purdue Book Initiative Grant to support the publication of her co-authored book, English Learner Literacy in Elementary Schools: Instructional Quality, Professional Development, and the Impact of COVID-19, with Dr. Wayne E. Wright (Associate Dean, College of Education). The book will be published by Emerald Publishing (UK) in 2026.