Abstract
This study aims to explore the attitudes and practices of Spanish university lecturers towards their use of EMI, and more specifically, their implicit and explicit assessment of their students’ English production. The research is based on an initial survey which was completed by teaching staff from a medium-sized university in Madrid, as well as the findings of two subsequent focus groups consisting of a one-hour moderated discussion on the topic. The results were then processed through NVivo software. The participants in both the survey and the focus groups were drawn from a variety of academic disciplines and had different levels of experience in delivering their classes and their assessment in English. The most significant findings of the research were centred on the distinction between EMI lecturers’ implicit and explicit assessment of their students’ use of English in their assignments and exams.
References
Ball, P. & Lindsay, D. (2013). Language Demands and Support for English-Medium Instruction in Tertiary Education: Learning from a Specific Context. In Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D. & Sierra, J.M (2013). English-Medium Instruction at Universities. Global Challenges. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, (pp. 44-61). doi: 10.21832/9781847698162-007
Breeze, R., & Sancho Guinda, C. (2021). Teaching English Medium Instruction courses in Higher Education: A guide for non-native speakers. Bloomsbury.
Coleman, J.A. (2006). English-medium teaching in European Higher Education. Language Teaching 39 (1) (pp. 1-14). doi: 10.1017/S026144480600320X
Costa, F. & Coleman, J.A. (2013). A survey of English-medium instruction in Italian higher education” in International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 16-1, (pp. 3-19). Doi: 10.1080/13670050.2012.676621
Dafouz, E., Camacho, M., and Urquía, E. (2014). “Surely they can’t do as well”: a comparison of business students’ academic performance in English medium and Spanish-as-first-language medium programmes”. Language and Education. 28 (3) (pp. 223-236). doi: 10.1080/09500782.2013.808661
Dafouz Milne, E. & Núñez Perucha, B. (2010). Metadiscursive devices in university lectures: A contrastive analysis of L1 and L2 teacher performance. In Dalton-Gurtler, C., Nikula, T. & Smit, U. (2010) Language Use and Language Learning in CLIL Classrooms. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, (pp. 213-232). doi: 10.1075/aals.7.11daf
Dimova, S. D, Jensen and Hultgren, A.K. & Jensen, C, (Eds.) (2015). English Medium Instruction in European Higher Education. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. doi: 10.1515/9781614515272-002
Dimova S, Hultgren, A.K. & Jensen. (2015). English-medium instruction in European higher education: Review and future research. In Dimova, D, Jensen and Hultgren, A.K. & Jensen, C, (Eds.) (2015). English Medium Instruction in European Higher Education. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, (pp. 317-324).
Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D. &Sierra, J.M (2013). English-Medium Instruction at Universities. Global Challenges. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. doi:10.1002/tesq.144
Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D. &Sierra, J.M (2013). English as L3 at a Bilingual University in The Basque Country, Spain. In Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D. &Sierra, J.M (2013). English-Medium Instruction at Universities. Global Challenges. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, (pp. 84-105). doi: 10.21832/9781847698162-009
Lasagabaster, D. (2015). Multilingual language policy: Is it becoming a misnomer at university level? In S. Dimova, A.K. Hultgren, & C. Jensen, C, (Eds) (2015). English Medium Instruction in European Higher Education. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, (pp. 115-136). Doi: 10.1515/9781614515272-007
Lo, Y. Y. (2014). L2 language learning opportunities in different academic subjects in content-based instruction – evidence in favour of “conventional wisdom”. Language and Education, 28 (2), (pp. 141-160). doi: 10.1080/09500782.2013.786086
Lo, Y.Y. (2022). Researching Assessment in EMI. In J.K.H. Pun & S.M. Curle (Eds) (2022) Research Methods in English Medium Instruction. New York: Routledge, (pp. 61-74).
Lo. Y.Y., Lin, A.M.Y. (2014). Designing Assessment tasks with language awareness: Balancing cognitive and linguistic demands. Assessment and Learning, 3, (pp. 97-119).
Massler, U., Stotz, D., & Queisser, C. (2014). Assessment instruments for primary CLIL: The conceptualization and evaluation of set tasks. The Language Learning Journal, 42 (2), (pp. 137-150). doi: 10.1080/09571736.2014.891371
Otto, A & Estrada, J.L. (2019) Towards an understanding of CLIL assessment practices in a European Context: Main assessment tools and the role of language in content subjects. CLIL Journal of Innovation and Research in Plurilingual and Pluricultural Education, 2(1), (pp.31-42). doi: 10.5565/rev/clil.11
Phillipson, R. (2015). English as threat or opportunity in European Higher Education. In S. Dimova, A.K. Hultgren, & C. Jensen, C, (Eds) (2015). English Medium Instruction in European Higher Education. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, (pp. 19-42) doi: 10.1515/9781614515272-003
Pulcini, V & Campagna, S. (2015). Internationalisation and the EMI controversy in Italian Higher Education. In S. Dimova, A.K. Hultgren, & C. Jensen, C, (Eds) (2015). English Medium Instruction in European Higher Education. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, (pp. 65-88).
Shaw, S & Imam, H. (2013). Assessment of international students through the medium of English: Ensuring validity and fairness in content-based examinations. Language Assessment Quarterly, 10 (4), (pp. 452-475). doi: 10.1080/15434303.2013.866117
Shohamy. E. (2012). A critical perspective on the use of English as a medium of instruction at universities. In Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D. &Sierra, J.M (2013). English-Medium Instruction at Universities. Global Challenges. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, (pp. 196-212). doi: 10.21832/9781847698162-014
Copyright (c) 2022 Maria Dolores Rodriguez Melchor, Andrew Samuel Walsh
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.