Teaching in English: English Medium Instruction

Certificate Teaching in English: an initiative to increase the offer of lectures in English and to support all instructors in providing them.

Two Course parts

1. part: 3 days in-class training, 9 am - 2 pm

2. part: 1 hour group coaching session after the in-class training (separated in 3 small groups each afternoon from 2.15 - 3.15 pm)

course description

work on the methodology of English Medium Instruction (EMI) with activities to develop participants’ advanced speaking skills.

Methodology for University Faculty

The major objective of the course is to familiarize participants with a variety of teaching strategies suitable for use in university classrooms, and to provide opportunities for them to practice these strategies in class, in small- and large-group settings. Participants will be required to read about, observe, discuss, and implement classroom strategies such as think-pair-share, using graphic organizers, brainstorming, restating and summarizing, limiting new information, and effective questioning. They will examine and analyze different models of lesson design and classroom strategies. There will be opportunities for general discussion as well as more focused sessions involving hands on practice. Topics will include such areas as Bloom’s Taxonomy, Understanding by Design (Wiggins), Deep Learning, ways of checking comprehension and demonstrating understanding, and modifications to consider when teaching in an environment where English is the lingua franca.

Advanced English Speaking Skills

Since content-based instruction integrates language learning with discipline-specific content learning, content-based instructors must have strong oral English skills to teach effectively. The course will be designed to meet four objectives: to improve and strengthen participants’ spoken English for classroom purposes and conversations, to develop speaking techniques for teaching content-based materials in English, to introduce student-centered discussion strategies, and to practice a variety of spoken English activities to enhance content-based learning. These objectives will be met through a variety of activities, assignments, and presentation opportunities. Over the training period, participants will move from improving their essential English conversational skills to strengthening their English and presentation skills at an advanced level.

>> further information: https://intranet.uni-graz.at/einheiten/850/services/Pages/Teaching-in-English.aspx

Course tutor

Robert O'Dowd

Robert O'Dowd comes from Ireland and teaches Applied Linguistics at the University of León, Spain. He has a PhD from the University of Duisburg-Essen and has taught at universities in Ireland, Germany and Spain. He has published widely on online technologies in foreign language education and is currently coordinating a European project on telecollaborative exchange in Higher Education.