Basic language proficiency plays an important role in course delivery and learning in science , as poor language proficiency increases chance of conceptual misunderstanding . Despite having nearly all university instruction in English, difficulties in English proficiency are considered a very common issue for college education in the UAE and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) . This is affected in unpredictable ways by a large international multi-generational migrant population, which creates an increasingly heterogeneous population in secondary and university education that does not map onto other well-studied populations (e.g. USA, Europe, Australia, or Asian Far East). The educational environment in the UAE differs from that encountered by ESL students studying in English-speaking countries, in that education may be the only context in which English is the predominant, day-to-day language. The population of students majoring in engineering disciplines at Khalifa University is unique in several ways: >98% are ESL speakers, and are of diverse socio-economic backgrounds; students are either UAE nationals (~85%) or come from a diverse group of predominantly MENA-region expatriates (~15%). Within the overall set of ESL issues encountered elsewhere, reading comprehension is the skill lagging most. Simultaneously, there exist substantial gaps in several areas of elementary (pre-calculus) mathematics. These skill deficits hamper learning from both the students' and instructors' perspectives, which motivates development of teaching and learning strategies that enhance, or augment, language skills alongside chemistry content .