Quantum-Based Instruction: The Language of Nuclear Security

The Monterey Institute's signature innovation initiative registered another significant outcome this summer with the successful execution of a multi-dimensional training course featuring unique partnerships between content experts in nuclear science and nonproliferation and English language educators. In the first phase, five nuclear scientists from Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) in Tomsk, Russia, engaged in the English Language and Nonproliferation Program (ELAN) for Nuclear Security at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. The scientific faculty for nuclear physics and nuclear materials protection, control, and accounting (MPC&A) arrived in Monterey in July to develop English language proficiency in order to enhance communication with their U.S. partners and counterparts in international organizations, including the U.S. Department of Energy and the International Atomic Energy Agency. In August they were joined for phase two by their English language faculty colleagues in the course Content-Based Instruction Team Teaching for Nuclear Security. This course is designed to enhance the English language delivery of nuclear security content to TPU students by teams of nuclear scientists and English language specialists in the TPU Institute of Physics and Technology.

The nonproliferation content-oriented program is co-led and -developed by Lisa Donohoe Luscombe, CNS Education Program project manager, and Peter A. Shaw, professor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education (GSTILE). The program fuses an instructional framework of nuclear science, safeguards, and security issues with language acquisition, skill development, and pedagogical expertise to create a quantum system of language and teaching mastery for nonproliferation contexts. The delivery of this holistic system integrates content-based instruction (CBI) with English and professional development in related curricular and pedagogical approaches.

Key to content-based instruction is contextualizing the learning process in real-world social, political, and professional materials and activities. During July, the nuclear scientists received content-based English language training, delivered by a group of MIIS and CNS language instructors led by Lisa Luscombe. In addition to skill-building activities related to the nuclear fuel cycle, IAEA safeguards inspections, nuclear material accounting, and threats to nuclear security, they participated in reading-based discussions and conference-style colloquia on nuclear nonproliferation safeguards, reviewed and evaluated scientific papers, discussed science education and teaching concerns with physics department faculty at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, and hosted an electronic poster session of their research for CNS staff. Through these experiences, participants developed and enhanced their listening, speaking, reading, writing, and presentation skills, as well as their ability to answer challenging questions from both policy analysts and in-house nuclear physicists about their work. This portion of the training helped to prepare them for the August program.

In August, the scientists were joined by TPU language faculty and Professor Shaw for a professional development course in the curricular and pedagogical implications of CBI, the unique features of which included the cross-disciplinary pairing of CNS content experts with English language faculty and instructors from GSTILE in the development of nonproliferation-content lessons using relevant and contextualized learning materials for language acquisition. The team-taught sessions, modeled on the Monterey Institute's Monterey Way, delivered nuclear security topics, from verification of weapons dismantlement and international treaties and agreements to illicit trafficking and nuclear terrorism, using relevant authentic materials and interactive tasks to facilitate content mastery and enhance language acquisition. With knowledge gained through these model lessons, participants engaged in a workshop-style hands-on course on the principles and practices of CBI, in which content expert-English teacher teams developed their own curriculum frameworks, lesson objectives and plans, and evaluation and assessment tools for topics related to nuclear security—specifically, proliferation-sensitive aspects of nuclear materials, the nuclear fuel cycle, and reactor design—incorporating aspects of nuclear physics and material protection and control. The workshop also included continued attention to honing English language skills, training in effective team-teaching and exploration of learning processes, all intended to provide a train-the-trainers strategy for further content-based English language instruction initiatives at TPU.

The program grew out of a proposal developed about two years ago by Lisa Donohoe Luscombe and Professor Peter A. Shaw to enhance the English language proficiency of TPU graduates. In the Monterey Way, interdisciplinary studies are highly valued as a way of crafting innovation and seeing linkages across global issues. This unique cross-disciplinary course brings together professionals in nuclear security and second language teaching to find new ways of preparing TPU students to help solve the global problem of securing vulnerable materials that could be diverted to weapons use, whether by states or non-state actors. TPU students go on to work in the control and accounting of fissile materials and physical protection of nuclear facilities in Russia, as well as in international organizations in nuclear energy where they require English language skills to follow international regulations, participate in scientific forums, and communicate with colleagues from other countries. After the Monterey proposal was approved by the U.S. Department of Energy, the ELAN project manager conducted a needs assessment at TPU (November 2009) and diagnostic testing (April 2010), which served as basis and baseline for the successful summer 2010 program, now in its final stages.

Quantum-Based Instruction: A Holistic System of Content Mastery and Language Acquisition

In the top tier, the English Language and Nonproliferation project manager and the professor of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) share expertise in content-based instruction (CBI) specific to nonproliferation and pedagogical principles. In a lesson planning workshop, this information is passed to teams of CNS content experts and language specialists from the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education (GSTILE). These cross-cultural teams develop and deliver lessons on nonproliferation issues—such as verification, warhead dismantlement, and illicit trafficking—for content mastery and language acquisition. Teams of nuclear physics content experts and language specialists from Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) gain not only content mastery and language acquisition, but also enhanced understanding of CBI principles and pedagogical approaches to teaching their students in the Institute of Physics and Technology. These teams then develop their own lessons in nuclear security issues, as well as program-level goals and objectives for increasing the English language proficiency of TPU students in the area of nonproliferation and nuclear security.