In many universities, a majority of the students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduate programs as well as increasing numbers of undergraduates are international students. Even for students who have the minimum English proficiency required for admission, the need for academic and professional language and cultural support is great, and often unmet by their content programs. Although discipline-specific communication skills are expected, these skills are seldom taught explicitly. International graduate students often struggle with discipline-specific critical thinking and analytical skills, communication skills for genre-based tasks, and disciplinary socialization knowledge needed to master professional communication and behavior.

Effective participation in a discipline-specific community has been linked to mastery of discipline-specific genres over time, but much more than knowledge of text structures is required for socialization into a profession (Dressen-Hammouda, 2008; Morton, 2009). Professional literacy practices include unwritten expectations, interpersonal relationships, and socialization into one’s department (Casanave & Li, 2008). Theories regarding communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) describe the sociocultural perspective, which supports the importance of participation of new members of a profession with more expert members to promote learning and enculturation.

Although discipline-specific communication skills and student learning transfer to discipline-specific program courses has often been beyond the scope of a typical English for specific purposes (EAP)-focused ESL program (James, 2010), they can be incorporated into an ESL curriculum through a customized and collaborative English for specific purposes (ESP) approach. The development and teaching of ESP courses is guided by the theories and pedagogy of content-based instruction used for ESL, EAP, and intensive English programs (IEPs). Therefore, TESOL students; ESL, EAP, and IEP instructors; and other TESOL professionals interested in collaborating with STEM faculty are well positioned to develop customized ESL courses that focus on the academic literacy, professional expectations, and cultural competences necessary for discipline-specific courses.

An ESL program will add value and credibility on its campus by initiating relationships with other academic programs/departments that enroll high numbers of international students and by being proactive in meeting the linguistic needs required to be successful in those programs. Initial contacts can be made in department meetings, campus committee meetings, campus-wide surveys distributed by an ESL program, and various campus faculty and student resource centers. Partnering relationships can be established at any level: faculty to faculty, faculty to administrators, and so on. The goal that opens many doors to collaboration is always student success.

At Eastern Michigan University (EMU) customized graduate-level, credit-bearing courses have been established through collaboration across campus with three STEM graduate program departments with high percentages of international students (Chemistry, Biology, and Clinical Research Administration). The development of a specific graduate-level customized course involves collaboration with STEM content area faculty to define the situation and needs, develop and teach the course, and solicit feedback.

Situation and Needs

At the outset of the collaboration, it is critical to understand the content area program requirements, the students’ challenges, and the professional skills that they need to acquire. The STEM program faculty will be able to articulate the program requirements as well as the areas where international students have specific/distinct challenges. This information regarding the field-specific academic and professional expectations can be obtained from a STEM program advisor who solicits his or her colleagues, directly from faculty, or from an advisory group with follow-up to a program advisor. It is not necessary for the TESOL professional to be a STEM expert to teach this type of skills-based language course.

In the case of the Clinical Research Administration (CRA) program at EMU, students are placed in a practicum experience where they function as a coordinator for clinical trials for new drugs. In this role, a CRA student interacts with patients and healthcare and drug development professionals in hospitals where the trials are conducted, in collaboration with drug companies, who sponsor the trials. Therefore, CRA students must have strong skills to communicate competently, ethically, compassionately, and professionally, in the context of U.S. culture, all while adhering to strict confidentiality and safety regulations. This is a challenge to any professional in this field, but especially to international graduate students.

The specific features of the CRA customized course include professional communication skills in a healthcare setting, professional competence (an ethical context) beyond academics, cultural competence in a professional setting, as well as academic skills and language development. This course provides the opportunity for students to immediately apply language skills to professional and academic expectations in order to develop discipline-specific fluency.

The Course

Based on the unique features defined for a customized course, a TESOL professional can create a course skills, assignments, and assessments matrix, which provides a framework for the course syllabus (Table 1). This matrix needs to be in a concise form that is easily understood by non-TESOL faculty, because it is critical to discuss in detail the content of the STEM program assignments and STEM program faculty expectations for each of the skills proposed in this framework. The needs and expectations that the STEM faculty identifies are the skills students need to acquire. The TESOL professional identifies specific assignments and assessments to enable the students to learn and practice the skills and performs assessments to ensure that students are becoming proficient in the skills.

Table 1. Course Skills, Assignments, and Assessments Matrix Example

In such an ESP course, the use of field-specific materials for a STEM customized course is essential. If possible, it is extremely helpful for the TESOL professional to receive syllabi for STEM program courses. Based on these syllabi, collaboration with the STEM program faculty advisor, and incorporation of Internet resources, a set of materials can be assembled. For the CRA course, a role definition, case studies, and relevant cultural assimilators were available online. Additionally, in STEM fields many of the resources and course materials are scientific journal articles. Librarian specialists can assist the TESOL professional to learn more about the field-specific databases and journals. During the course of the semester, collaboration with librarian specialists will also support the students and TESOL professional.

Feedback

Ongoing collaboration with the STEM program faculty advisor is essential to establishing rapport and exchanging feedback. Providing the STEM advisor with updates as the semester progresses and engaging him or her to participate (e.g., in approving student research paper topics) supports development of an ongoing dialogue. Discussion and comparison of student feedback on the ESP course to the program advisor and ESL instructor, along with observations made by the program advisor, can provide the basis for immediate minor course improvements and overall success in the CRA program.

Formal feedback is also essential to demonstrate results. A pre- and postskills assessment is given to the students in each customized course, and the results are quantitatively evaluated for trends. Additionally, qualitative written feedback is collected from the students in the form of a survey at the end of the course semester and 1 year following completion of the course. The analyses of these assessments and surveys are shared with the STEM program advisor. This allows for continuous improvement and evolution of the course as needed.

Conclusions

Collaborations between STEM faculty and TESOL professionals to define specific skills needed, develop and teach a customized course, and use feedback to make improvements can support international students in developing academic literacy, professional expectations, and cultural competencies for their discipline. The concepts and tools used to develop collaborations, evaluate student needs, and design discipline-specific courses and materials as well as assess the effectiveness of discipline-specific courses are easily applied to other undergraduate and graduate situations across the university. Customized ESP courses provide an extended opportunity, beyond a typical ESL program, to support international students across campus who are becoming discipline-specific professionals.

References

Casanave, C. P., & Li, X. (2008). Learning the literacy practices of graduate school. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Dressen-Hammouda, D. (2008). From novice to disciplinary expert: Disciplinary identity and genre mastery. English for Specific Purposes, 27, 233–252.

James, M. A. (2010). Transfer climate and EAP education: Students’ perceptions of challenges to learning transfer. English for Specific Purposes, 29, 133–147.

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Morton, J. (2009). Genre and disciplinary competence: A case study of contextualization in an academic speech genre. English for Specific Purposes, 28, 217–229.

Kay Stremler has a master’s in TESOL and a PhD in chemistry. Currently she teaches professional and academic communication to graduate ESL students at Eastern Michigan University. She also has extensive experience in international biotechnology drug development. Living and working in Germany for 7 years inspired her interest in TESOL, which she pursued through a master’s at Eastern Michigan University. Currently at Eastern, she is involved in research on enculturation and learning transfer in scientific, technical, and healthcare disciplines at the graduate level.

Kimberly Anderson has a master’s in TESOL/intercultural studies. She currently serves as director of the ESL Program at Eastern Michigan University and has led a steady program for 10 years through a multitude of changes in both international student enrollment trends and administrative/organizational restructuring on the EMU campus. She developed and oversees an all-skills English tutoring center for all international students on campus and an intensive English program that runs parallel with a full EAP program. She is currently working on expanding customized ESL courses at the graduate level for discipline-specific language needs.