Teaching statistics to students who are learning in a foreign language

We have an increasing number of students at Australian universities whose first language is not English. The English courses which many of these students take before being admitted are frequently inadequate for the study of technical subjects such as statistics which have a language of their own. Very little work has been done on the precise difficulties experienced by overseas students and how these difficulties could be alleviated. This paper discusses some of these problems which arise in first level university statistics courses and suggests some appropriate responses. In general these suggestions would probably benefit all students, not only those from overseas.