Often, STEM programs require out-of-major courses relating to written or spoken communication. Even if that isn't required, I would strongly advise all STEM students to cultivate those skills during their schooling.

Comfort and expertise reading, writing, and verbally communicating in English are some of the most important skills that distinguish excellent software engineers I have worked with and hired.

In many cases, those skills are even more important than technical/coding expertise--it's easier to teach and learn technicals when one's student is a fluent communicator, but a programming genius who routinely fails to explain their decisions or creations is a liability.

Somewhat ironically (or perhaps regrettably for the US education system), most of the engineers I have worked with or hired who were the most impressive written/spoken readers/communicators were people whose first language was not english, and many of the folks who struggled were native speakers/writers.

Edits: grammar, ironically.