# English Programs for non-English Speaking College Students

Osama A. Marzouk

Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics (Mail Code 0219)

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)

Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA

omarzouk@vt.edu

<table><tr><td>Abstract</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>Keywords</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Introduction</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Educational System in Egypt</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>English Background of New College Students</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>Students Difficulties with English Programs</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>Suggestions to Improve the English-Programs Outcome</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>Conclusions and Comments</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>References</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>Biography</td><td>8</td></tr></table>

## Abstract

The Faculty<fnref n="1" /> of Engineering at Cairo University (one of the biggest, oldest, and most reputable colleges in Egypt) uses English as the language of the written media for instruction and evaluation (e.g., class notes, textbooks, tests, and homework assignments) for all years of study except the first year. Based on the higher education admission system, the students who join this faculty are among the top of high-school graduates. Although these students study English for six to twelve years at their pre-college schools (depending on the type of the schools), English is not used in any type of communication in the society. Thus, heavy use of this foreign language (with technical and professional focus) during the college study forms a barrier to some students, which calls for more attention and effort toward reducing the level of inconvenience that students may feel.

From my experience as an undergraduate and graduate student, and a teaching assistant in this typical large-size Middle-Eastern technical college, I address some of the difficulties that face non-English speaking college students when they enroll in English programs. I give some suggestions and propose changes to improve the performance of the offered English programs and to avoid the pitfalls that students may fall into when adapting themselves to these programs.

<footnote n="1">¹ The name “Faculty of Engineering” is commonly used in several non-US higher education systems like the Canadian, Australian, Egyptian, and Malaysian systems. It is equivalent to “College of Engineering” in US universities.</footnote>
**Keywords**

Language, English, College, Instruction

**Introduction**

Language is a concern that inevitably arises when we think about globalization in higher education. There is another concern that is confronted when we consider the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, which is the unit system. However, differences in unit systems across educational programs are easier to handle and cope with than differences in languages. There is a constant increase in the number of textbooks that use both the international system of units and the Imperial or the US customary unit systems throughout their content and in the solved problems or the exercises. These books typically include an appendix with conversion tables between these unit systems. So, proper choice of the textbook and having a lecture at the beginning of the course that covers the differences between these unit systems can handle this issue to a large extent.

The situation is more complicated for the language since the required action is expected to be at the level of the entire college, not just a classroom. This action is to offer courses that are instructed in a foreign language, which is English in the present case. Accreditation bodies (governmental or private) should be involved in making and implementing this action, which makes it more difficult. This action of offering programs in English is necessary since it is de facto the formal language of most international events and conferences, either academic or non-academic, and scholarly publications and scientific journals. Also, the majority of high-quality textbooks are written in English; and many educational software or commercial computer packages that complement and support classroom lectures or laboratories have English interface. However, there will be some difficulties that face non-English speaking college students when they enroll in these English programs. The level of these difficulties varies depending on the pre-college knowledge of English through taught courses at school. Colleges should look for and adopt a good model when offering such programs and should pay proper attention to how the courses are instructed using English, which is a foreign language for the students.

These issues are addressed here in the light of English programs in the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University. These programs use English as the formal language for all written materials and examinations for students whose mother language is Arabic (with Egyptian accent). The students rely completely on their mother language in daily communications, and English is rarely used beyond English classes at school. The faculty (i.e., the college) follows a gradual approach in implementing these English programs, which is helpful for the student. However, the language is still a problem for some of them, especially those who studied English for less number of years than others. I propose some suggestions and recommendations, which make the students more confident and less worried about using English for their study. Although I used one college to demonstrate the ideas that are discussed here, the findings and comments made here are generalizable and transferrable. They generally fit and work, with possible
adaptations, in situations where higher education units attempt to adopt English programs for scientific and technical academic majors in response to increasing knowledge globalization in the topics compromising these majors, which demands competent use of English (as a universal language that dominates the relevant research and development) in relation to these topics and majors so that the students after graduation do not find themselves isolated from the global communities that share interest with them in these areas of knowledge or their applications.

## Educational System in Egypt

Since the educational systems vary from one country to another, it is important here to familiarize the reader with the Egyptian system since it is different from the one used in the United States. At the age of six, students enroll in a primary school (which is equivalent to the elementary school in the US) for six years. Then, they enroll in a preparatory school (which is equivalent to the middle school in the US) for three years. Then, they enroll in a secondary school (which is equivalent to the high school in the US) for another three years. During the last two years of secondary school, students choose a curriculum specialization, which can be ‘science’ (equivalent to STEM), ‘literature’ (equivalent to liberal arts), or ‘combination’ (i.e., unspecialized). This choice does not only determine the courses that students take during their secondary school, but also the range of colleges they can be admitted to. For example, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, and information technology majors are not available to students who choose ‘literature’ specialization. After graduation from high school, students go to college through a ‘matching process’, where each student prepares a list of desired colleges (about 40 items in order of preference). Usually the faculties of medicine (equivalent to the medical schools in the US), faculties of pharmacy (or schools of pharmacy in the US), and faculties of engineering (or colleges of engineering in the US) are the most demanded colleges. This is ascribed to the cultural perception that medical doctors, pharmacists, and engineers have higher social ranks than other professions. In fact, these faculties are informally called ‘summit faculties’. Consequently, students who have high grades in the last two years of their high school (equivalent to the high school GPA) are usually those who are admitted to the ‘summit faculties’, which is another reason for this name.

Based on this, there are several differences between the Egyptian and the American systems of higher education. For example, students do not need to take any aptitude tests to apply for a college. In fact, students do not apply directly to a university or a college. Instead, the Supreme Council of Universities manages the admissions through the ‘matching process’ as mentioned before. Also, students can enroll in the faculties of medicine or pharmacy (or medical schools and schools of pharmacy) directly after finishing their secondary (or high) school. These disciplines are offered at the undergraduate level similar to any other disciplines.

## English Background of New College Students

After the brief description of the pre-college education and its phases, I should explain the amount and level of English study during these phases. There are two types of pre-college schools in Egypt, the regular schools and the foreign-languages schools. The
former completely use Arabic in the instruction of all subjects other than foreign languages. On the other hand, foreign-languages schools use English instead of Arabic for the written media used for instructions and evaluation (such as textbooks, homework, and exams). In addition, regular schools teach English subject starting from the preparatory phase (or middle school). So, the students study English for six years before college. Foreign-languages schools teach English subject starting from the primary phase (or elementary school). So, students study English for twelve years before college.

The fact that students in foreign-languages schools study technical and scientific subjects (such as biology, physics, math, and computers) in English gives them big advantage when enrolling in a college that also uses English in a similar way. For this reason, there is an increase in the number of students enrolling in foreign-languages schools as compared to regular schools despite the higher tuition of the former. Thus, students graduating from foreign-languages (English-based) schools usually have no problems with such English programs at college; it is the students graduating from regular (i.e., Arabic-based) schools who may have problems with these programs at their early stage. I graduated from regular schools, whereas my younger brother and sister graduated from foreign-languages schools. So, I am very familiar with both types and the differences between them.

## Students Difficulties with English Programs

In the Egyptian system of higher education, engineering students study for five years (as compared to four years in the US) before getting their Bachelor of Science degree. Since no summer courses are offered and students have to take a prescribed number of courses each semester, the students do not have the chance to reduce this number to four years or less. At Cairo University, first-year engineering students (this year is known as the ‘preparatory year’) are given Arabic textbooks and the instructors usually write their notes in Arabic (except for the equations and symbols, which are either in English or Greek). Starting from the second year, students choose an engineering discipline (e.g., mechanical, electrical, or civil); they also use English instead of Arabic in their study.

As mentioned earlier, college students who got their pre-college education at foreign-languages schools have no problems with the mentioned English programs of engineering. In fact, they need to spend some effort to adapt themselves the Arabic-based materials used during the first (preparatory) year. Others who studied at regular schools might find it difficult to use textbooks and to write and study from notes given in English for several reasons. First, the terminology is different. This is emphasized in math and physics courses. The mathematical functions (such as the logarithm, cosine, and derivative) are named in totally a new way for these students. Similar issue happens for physical quantities and phenomena (such as viscosity, friction, and thermal conductivity). Second, the students find themselves in situations where they need to translate many technical terms when reading an English textbook. The dictionary the students used to rely on during their secondary (or high) school becomes much less helpful now since it usually does not include such specialized terms. Third, the solutions of homework assignments and project reports have to be prepared entirely in English, which is not an easy task for the students at the beginning.
# Suggestions to Improve the English-Programs Outcome

Based on my observation (during my studying and instructing experience) of difficulties that some students face at the beginning of the aforementioned English programs, I propose some actions that facilitate their adaptation of these programs, especially at the early stages.

* Offering an extensive English course during the preparatory year that focuses on the terminology that is commonly used in engineering.

* Providing an engineering-based dictionary to students. Since each discipline has its unique terminology, this dictionary should be discipline-based and be offered to students (available for purchase of in the library) in each discipline. The dictionary can either be one of the available dictionaries in the market, which suit the students, or be prepared by some members of the teaching board in each discipline.

* Organizing short summer courses for incoming students about engineering-based English, which cover a lot of the English vocabulary, expressions, and abbreviations that are commonly used in engineering and consequently will be used during the study at the college. Each course can last for approximately one week (five-six days). It is important that these short courses be repeated over the summer so that students can attend a course that matches their summer schedule. For example, one day may be devoted to mathematics (e.g., trigonometry and algebra); another day is devoted to electric circuits and electronics, one day for physics and dynamics, another day for the mechanics of deformable bodies and structures, and one day for fluid mechanics and thermodynamics.

* Since instructors play a dominant rule in overcoming potential language troubles in such English programs, it will be useful to provide training sessions for them with special emphasis on how to avoid any communication problems due to using a foreign language, and how to prepare class notes and other materials that are easily understood by students with a wide range of English backgrounds. These training sessions can be in the form of workshops, seminars, or discussion groups where the instructors share their experience and the strategies they used and found to be successful and lead to preparing efficient English-based instructional media.

* And since the main target here is the students, it is important to involve them in any plans and approaches to help them with the English programs they study. For example, they can fill surveys about the most difficult terms they deal with during the various years of study in their disciplines. The outcome of this survey can serve in the preparation of the specialized dictionary that was mentioned before, or in preparing a small booklet that accompanies pre-existing dictionaries in case the designated teaching board of a discipline decides to use them.
Conclusions and Comments

In a world of increasing knowledge globalization, higher education institutions of scientific, technical, engineering, and math majors should respond to this change by appropriately modifying their academic programs such that students graduate with the ability to communicate well with others in different places of the world. The alumni should also be able to easily read and use the ongoing publications that are related to their field of study and profession. Scientific journals, conference proceedings, books, and professional magazines are examples of these media that are important for a successful career. In some situations, relying on an existing well-prepared textbook (which is available in English only) for teaching a course is much better than preparing a new one in the mother language of the students.

For these reasons, and since English is the language that is used for most of the technical and scientific conferences and publications and also for internationally-renowned textbooks, several universities and colleges in non-English speaking cultures (especially those ranked as the top universities in the country) have implemented or work on implementing English programs where students mainly use English-based media and writing during their study. Since this will be the first time for the students to rely on English in their specialized study at the college level, some of them will experience troubles that reflect on their gain of knowledge from these English programs.

I considered a typical example of these programs, which is the ones offered in the Faculty (or College) of Engineering at Cairo University, Egypt, where I was a student (undergraduate and graduate) for seven years and a teaching assistant for two years. I discussed some issues that relate to the performance of these English programs, such as the big variety of students' pre-college experience and knowledge of English, especially for scientific and technical use. This factor should be considered carefully when designing such English programs so that they suit all students, not just a group of them. I illustrated the sources of difficulties that students may encounter in these programs. The new terminology, which is very technical and specialized, is one of the main hurdles. Then, I proposed some ideas to overcome such hurdles, or at lease to minimize their impact on the students performance. Having a required English course whose focus is aligned with the study in the college is a good step to introduce the students to the new terms, expressions, and abbreviations they will use later. Also, providing a suitable specialized dictionary for students saves the time they spend looking for the meanings of very technical or discipline-related terms in general-use dictionaries, such as the ones they used before college. The colleges should seek the participation of their students in the efforts and plans that intend to make English programs more accessible and successful, by collecting their opinions about the hard terms they encounter during their study and continuously collecting their feedback about their concerns and evaluations of the English programs, and how they compare to the traditional ones offered completely in Arabic. The rule of the instructors is substantial in the success of the English programs, and therefore they should also be prepared and trained to form their class notes and assignments in a clear way that is comprehensible to the students regardless of their broad range of English competency.

There is still one issue that I would like to comment on, which is the use of English in instruction starting from the second year not from the first year. While this is intended to smooth the increased students' reliance on English during their study, only those who got their pre-college education in regular (Arabic-based) schools benefit from this. On the
other hand, those who attended foreign-language (English-based) schools will be disadvantaged by this decision since they will have to struggle during the first year in college to familiarize themselves with the Arabic-based terms and expressions that they learned in English before. Therefore, there are two opposite factors that should be balanced when taking the decision of the starting time of the English program. I believe that unless the students who attended regular schools form the majority of the incoming students, the English programs should start from the first year. With the previously mentioned suggestions, this should not be a big problem to incoming students from regular schools, but will avoid the instructional interruption for those coming from foreign-languages schools.

Finally, I would like to mention that the observations and suggestions made here are not necessarily limited to a particular campus or society. They are generally applicable to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors at higher education institutions in non-English speaking societies, whether theses institutions have already similar English programs, or in the process of implementing them.

## References

The Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University, Egypt
http://www.eng.cu.edu.eg/

The Egyptian Supreme Council of Universities
http://www.scu.eun.eg/

"Educating the Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century," by the Committee on the Engineer of 2020 (Phase II), the Committee on Engineering Education, and National Academy of Engineering, National Academies Press, Washington, D.C., USA, 2005.

A. Labi, "How Much English Is Too Much?" *The Chronicle of Higher Education*, Vol. 54, No. 5, Sep. 2007, pp. A30.

B. Adamson, and P. Morris, "The English Curriculum in the People's Republic of China," *Comparative Education Review*, Vol. 41, No. 1, Feb. 1997, pp. 3-26.

P. G. Altbach, "The Imperial Tongue: English as the Dominating Academic Language," *International Higher Education*, Vol. 49, Fall 2007 pp. 2-4.

R. Tsuneyoshi, "Internationalization strategies in Japan," *Journal of Research in International Education*, Vol. 4, No. 1, Feb. 2007, pp. 65–86.

L. Purser, "The Bilingual University - General Reflections on its Origins, Mission, and Functioning," *Higher Education in Europe*, Vol., 25, No. 4, Dec. 2000, pp. 451 - 459.

B. Brock-Utne, "Language of Instruction and Research in Higher Education in Europe: Highlights from the Current Debate in Norway and Sweden," *International Review of Education*, Vol. 53, No. 4, Jul. 2007, pp. 367-388.
## Biography

Mr. Osama A. Marzouk got his BS and MS degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Cairo University, Egypt. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), working on the simulation and modeling of the fluid-structure interaction of cylinders, and simulation and control of ship motion. He has been a teaching assistant and instructor for more than four years at Virginia Tech, and for another two years at Cairo University. He has strong interest in college education, especially engineering, and academic globalization. He holds the recently launched Preparing Future Professoriate Graduate Certificate at Virginia Tech. He completed the requirements of the Engineering Education Graduate Certificate at the same institution. His interests, other than education and knowledge globalization, are computational fluid dynamics, nonlinear dynamics, modeling and control, ship stabilization, and optimization.