Kay Stremler, MA (TESOL), PhD (Chemistry) Lecturer, ESL Program; TESOL 2015

Situation Needs Surveys EAP Applications Discipline-Specific Collaboration Conclusions

Graduate focus on Masters degrees Eastern Michigan University has nearly 5,000 graduate students pursuing master's degrees, graduate certificates, specialist degrees and doctoral programs in more than 180 unique academic programs Student populations Total students on campus: approx. 24,000 Total graduate students: approx. 5,000 Total international students: approx. 1,000

Intensive English AdmissionESL Conditional Admission to a degree program - Classes do not count for credit - Students may take only ESL classes - Classes may count for credit - Students may be eligible to take degree courses at the same time Students in both admission types participate in the same classes with the same course requirements and the same program advancement procedures.

FoundationsBeginningIntermediateAdvancedAcademicGraduate Writing Reading Spk/Lis Electives Discipline- specific courses

Understand student’s needs for additional language and cultural support to be successful Focus on language skills and cultural knowledge needs across specific types of assignments and academic units on campus Establish contacts across campus for further collaboration in support of international graduate students

Who Instructional faculty and academic administrators How/When Survey Monkey, distributed via in 2011 What Thirteen questions Identifies college and department Focus on faculty who teach internationals in graduate courses Four specific multi-part questions about:  oral skills  tasks requiring written skills  critical analysis skills  academic interactions at U.S. universities

Please indicate tasks requiring oral skills where your international graduate students need improvement (check all that apply). Answer Options discuss course topics or research projects with a group of students present projects or research in an academic environment present projects or research in a professional environment understand and be understood by EMU course instructors in class participate in impromptu discussion with others in their major field of study provide instructions to undergraduate students communicate effectively (verbally) with other professionals in their field Other (please specify)

Please indicate tasks requiring written skills where your international graduate students need improvement (check all that apply). Answer Options write essays on exams or outside of class write technical research papers write experimental scientific research papers integrate sources into writing document/cite sources quote, paraphrase and summarize self-edit grammar use peer review and revision/editing strategies Other (please specify)

Please indicate tasks requiring critical analysis skills where your international graduate students need improvement (check all that apply). Answer Options read research articles read research abstracts read academic text books summarize and analyze research articles synthesize information and ideas from multiple journal articles Other (please specify)

U.S. cultural perspectives are reflected in academic interactions at U.S. universities. Please mark all of the areas that you think international graduate students in your department need to learn more about (check all that apply). Answer Options American academic expectations American professional expectations American work ethic and pace presenting their opinion interacting with others who have differing opinions asking questions and clarifying information politely plagiarism and cheating managing miscommunications Other (please specify)

CourseContent ESLN 512Graduate ESL Writing ESLN 514Graduate ESL Reading ESLN 516Graduate ESL Spkng/Lstng ESLN 518Graduate ESL Vocabulary ESLN 562Research Communication for Int’l Students in Science and Technology ESLN 565Professional Healthcare Communication for Int’l Students

 ESL integration across campus through collaboration to meet needs  Creation of customized graduate-level, credit- bearing courses  New aspect of our ESL Program offerings: Discipline-specific professional skills

1. Define needs with content department faculty a. met with department graduate program advisor or advisory board b. reviewed feedback with program advisor c. received additional program materials (syllabus, articles, lab teaching assignment description, etc. 2. ESL staff collaborated to design skills, assignments and assessments. 3. Reviewed course design with program advisor. 4. Instructor developed final syllabus, calendar, materials >>> Approx. timeline – 3 months; we set the pace

 Professional communication skills  Professional competence (ethical context) beyond academics  Cultural competence in a professional setting  Discipline-specific academic skills and language development

 Articulate skills needed, discipline specific assignments and assessments of competence  Describe in terms that faculty collaborators can relate to  Use iterative collaboration to guide definition of the framework  Use framework as basis for syllabus, assignments and calendar

SkillsAssignmentsAssessments Appropriate use of citations and incorporation of prior work in scientific report writing Written evaluation of hedging and qualifying claims in a scientific journal article. Written introduction to an experimental research report. Written discussion and conclusions sections of an experimental research report. Written assignments assessed for expression of ideas: Identification of author/ source Logic Comprehensibility Grammatical accuracy Use of own words Organization of main points Structure Use of specific language Appropriate use of citations

 Ongoing communication with program advisors  Pre- and post-testing of skills  Student surveys (post-course and one year later)  Faculty feedback one and two years after first offering  Immediate identification of course revisions (minor) with program advisor  Regular individual faculty and student feedback

Tasks– Critical analysis demonstrated through reading and writing Task 1 Analyze an abstracts’ components. Answer each question below by identifying the number of the sentence(s) that provides the information requested e.g., 1, 2, etc. Swales and Feak (2009) Task 2 Write a brief summary (as a short paragraph ) based on the abstract content.

Overall how helpful were the goals of Research Communication for International Students in Science and Technology to you for success in your graduate program? Response choices: Very helpful, somewhat helpful or not sure Feedback requested at course end and 1-year later

1-Year after 1 st course offering completed  Do these students demonstrate the writing skills necessary to succeed in their program?  YES

 ESLN562 course goals support student success in their graduate programs  Students are better prepared for overall program success  Course is a graduate program elective for chemistry and biology international students  Fourth course offering completed Fall 2014  Participation in chemistry program revisions as a collaborator ( )

Simultaneously developed and taught ESLN565 for the graduate Clinical Research Administration program 1. same process 2. different context/needs 3. five years of successful completion 4. required course for internationals in CRA program Resolving original problem of plagiarism in research writing Sustaining program dependent on interactions with community partners

Goals: To provide: 1. Professional language support for international graduate students – regardless of TOEFL score 2. Resources for graduate program faculty Outcome: To remain a collaborative, innovative, effective service to our campus.

ESL Program Director Professor of Chemistry and Graduate Advisor Chemistry Department Chair, Chemistry Professor of Biology and Graduate Advisor Interim Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Professor of Clinical Research Administration and Graduate Advisor