Providing Lecturer Support for English-Medium Instruction: an Experience at Padova University’s Language Centre

Journal title EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION IN LEARNING AND TEACHING
Author/s Fiona Clare Dalziel, Caroline Clark, Katherine Ackerley, Marta Guarda
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2016/2
Language English Pages 18 P. 65-82 File size 176 KB
DOI 10.3280/EXI2016-002005
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With the rise of English-Medium Instruction (EMI) in European higher education (Coleman, 2006), a growing number of lecturers have started to adopt English to teach their content courses. In order to support university teachers in the shift towards EMI, in 2013 Padova University’s Language Centre launched the LEAP (Learning English for Academic Purposes) project. The project aimed at providing lecturers with language and methodological support, thus guaranteeing and maintaining the quality of English-taught courses. This paper will provide an overview of the project by outlining its aims and describing the variety of support options that were developed and offered. The research questions it seeks to answer are the following: "what are the concerns and the perceived needs of lecturers engaging in EMI at the University of Padova? " to what extent did the LEAP project meet these needs? On the basis of the answers to these questions, the article will conclude by suggesting some possible future directions for EMI support provided by the Language Centre.

Keywords: English-Medium Instruction (EMI); English-taught programmes (ETPs); University Language Centre; internationalization; lecturer support.

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Fiona Clare Dalziel, Caroline Clark, Katherine Ackerley, Marta Guarda, Providing Lecturer Support for English-Medium Instruction: an Experience at Padova University’s Language Centre in "EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION IN LEARNING AND TEACHING" 2/2016, pp 65-82, DOI: 10.3280/EXI2016-002005