SKOKIE, Illinois - Twelve education leaders from Central and South Asia came to National Louis University Oct. 1 to learn how American educators handle some of the challenges the visitors face in their own countries.
The visitors described their governments' desire to create national curriculum in the STEM subjects. Since much of the world's scientific literature is written in English, studying English along with the STEM subjects will make their nations part of the international scientific community. The Central and South Asian educators were particularly interested in learning how American educators teach immigrant students science and English concurrently.
The educators are on a three-week tour of American universities through the U.S. State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program. They are visiting from Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.
NLU experts in teaching STEM to English learners
NLU's Kristin Lems, Ed.D., of Evanston, Professor, ESL/Bilingual Education, and Jason Stegemoller, Ph.D., of Chicago, Associate Professor, offer coursework in the specialization of language education. Lems and Stegemoller co-directed a five-year grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition, to improve STEM education for English language learners.
During that ESL STEM grant project from 2011-16, National Louis University partnered with Skokie School Districts 68 and 73.5 and Niles Township High School District 219. NLU provided ESL classes to STEM teachers from elementary school through high school. NLU instructed them about best ESL teaching methods in general and in the STEM subjects in particular, enabling them to acquire their teaching endorsements in ESL.
The Central Asian visitors listened as Robert D. Muller, dean of National Louis University's National College of Education, and Lems and Stegemoller talked about the landscape of education in Illinois and the United States. The international visitors asked about curriculum, how teachers get their training, and the art of preparing teachers for teaching with both (foreign) language and content.
English is the world's language of science
Klara Nazmutdinova of Uzbekistan, a senior researcher, said, "We have very similar issues with teaching English as a foreign language. Uzbekistan wants to teach STEM subjects in English so that students are learning science and English at the same time. We want to integrate our students into the international community, and 80 percent of science publishing is done in English. We also have the same issue as you with hiring teachers, because there are not enough teachers who can teach science in English. We have to teach content and language, which in the U.S. is called a content-based approach."
Stegemoller concurred. "If scientists want to publish, they have to publish in English," he said. "If they want to read scientific literature, they have to read it in English. That's the reality right now."
The Central and South Asian educators also visited Georgetown University and Miami Dade University. Their Chicago visit was coordinated by WorldChicago.
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