Chapter 10: English As A Second Language Program: Collaboration and Partnerships

The primary mission of the UW-Madison English as a Second Language (UW ESL) program, housed in the English Department, is to provide academic support for UW matriculated students. However, the program also has a long history of partnering with campus departments and non-campus institutions and organizations to broadly fulfill the Wisconsin Idea, that is, the university’s value and commitment to teaching and learning on campus and beyond. This chapter highlights UW ESL’s outreach activities—both with other UW units and externally with international educational institutions—to demonstrate how the program has engaged in this work over time. Outreach activities discussed in this chapter include special classes in support of campus groups such as the UW Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the UW Law School, as well as various language programs and teacher training programs abroad, for example, Kazakhstan, South Korea, and Turkey. This chapter particularly focuses on UW ESL’s collaboration with South Korea.

In this collaboration, UW ESL staff worked with a Korean government-affiliated teacher training institute to revise and focus the English language teacher training program for elementary, middle, and high school teachers in Gyeonggi-do Province.