EMI: why EAP practitioners should engage

1. EMI: why EAP practitioners should engage BALEAP Biennial Bristol Mary Page 9April 2017

2. Follow-up to BALEAP PIM June 2016

3. What is English Medium Instruction?

4. CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning CLIL has 2 functions: • to teach both content and a language at the same time, equally and in parallel; • the teacher can be seen to be a teacher of content and a language teacher; • mostly secondary school level. BUT: some universities DO undertake a CLIL approach.

5. EMI • “[t]he use of the English language to teach academic subjects in countries or jurisdictions where the first language (L1) of the majority of the population is not English” (Dearden 2015: 2).

6. My understanding • tertiary level; • (English) is the vehicle through which content is delivered; • academic is not a language teacher; • any improvement in language skills is a by-product.

7. Wider context • increasing number of distance taught programmes and modules; • MOOCs; • the reality of UK experiences.

9. EL Gazette: this week’s edition • In one Italian university international student numbers gone up from 17% (2012/2013) to 30%; • “English-medium courses must now also be offered in Italian, and universities will only be able to offer single units taught solely in English if the subject matter requires it”; • Italian simply ‘didn’t have the words’ to teach some technical courses and that teaching in English had become vital to what they offer….. • ‘I teach advanced computer architectures, and in Italian I simply don’t have the words to teach it’.

10. EMI growth in Europe (Wächter and Maiworm 2014)

11. Local interpretations of EMI No single, standard “model”: • widespread use of English throughout campus to include administrative and support staff; • bi-lingual / tri-lingual campuses; • selected programmes delivered through English; • some use of English in class because of discipline/texts.

12. Personal context • Began UoS Pre-sessional in 2002, and stayed; • 2007! • Professor Jennifer Jenkins arrived: ELF! • founded “Centre for Global Englishes”; • Largely ELF, but increasingly EMI; • I taught our first EMI course at Aarhus University in Denmark.

13. Southampton EMI courses • Aarhus, Denmark; • UAEM Toluca, Mexico; • Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; • Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia; • Malmo University, Sweden; • EMN, France; + colleagues have taken my materials to run a short course in China.

14. EMI course content • Language used in lectures and seminars; • Good practice with communication in international settings; • Confidence building; • Pedagogical issues. In the UK: a “slice of life”

15. TPU

17. Guesstimate of NNES academics in UK Academic year 2005/06 Percentage of academic staff in UK universities not UK nationals: • In post: 19.1% • Appointed that AY: 27% (Universities UK Policy Briefing, 2007)

18. Academic year 2011/12 Academic staff at UK higher education institutions not UK nationality • Full-time: 28% • Part-time: 18% Average: 24% (Higher Education in Facts and Figures , 2013)

19. Academics’ L1

20. Current “hot topics” • Which English? • ELF and/or English as a (multi) lingua franca; • Multi (pluri) lingualism; • “Ownership” of English now it is the world’s academic lingua franca; • Status of NES and NNES (NaSLOTE?); • Intercultural (Transcultural?) communication; • recent BALEAP thread “teacher” or “academic”.

21. Who are the people best placed to aid NNES academics both in the UK and globally to deliver through the medium of English?

22. Could this be a golden era for EAP practitioners?

23. Conclusion • detected some feelings that EAP practitioners are not “real” academics; • involvement in EMI – in its widest interpretation – is an opportunity to function at the heart of our universities and not on the periphery