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  • CAREER COLUMN

How helping my international students succeed helped everyone

By fixing a systematic problem in my exams, I helped all of my students — not just those for whom English is a second language.
By
  1. Michael Scott Long

    1. Michael Scott Long is a freelance science, technology, engineering and maths writer and editor, currently based in Kennewick, WA.

In 2016, I was teaching an undergraduate chemistry class at Central Washington University in Ellensburg and, after grading the first exam, noticed that some international students were failing the course. They sat together in class, and I presumed that they were friends or study partners. One of them spoke to me about his grade and how to proceed. After a brief discussion, I understood that these students were clearly motivated and knowledgeable, but struggled with written and spoken English. This was a particular problem in my classes, in which many exam questions needed to be answered with a written paragraph, rather than through multiple-choice selection or a calculation. It was clear that I needed to make the content more accessible to them, without reducing the academic rigour of my course.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02730-6

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged.

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