English as a second language (ESL) for engineering graduate students: a cooperative project in technical communication

Abstract

It is argued that those best qualified to evaluate international students' proficiency and offer instruction are specialists in ESL (English as a second language), technical communication, and teaching/learning and not the graduate engineering faculty. Engineering schools can involve these specialists by combining two approaches: (1) taking advantage of services offered by ESL and teaching programs already established in the university, and (2) hiring the specialists as instructors in the engineering school. Vanderbilt University's cooperative project in technical communication, which uses both approaches, is described. The two project components-one for new teaching assistants, the other for researchers-call on expertise from already established university programs: the Center for Teaching and the Center for Orientation Programs in English (COPE). In addition, a technical writing specialist in the School of Engineering teaches the writing component for researchers. Each project component is designed to accomplish one different and one shared goal. >