SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

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Language Policy Put into Practice: Functional Multilingualism at the European Technical University of Darmstadt

Constanze Bradlaw, Stefanie Nölle-Becker, Technische Universität Darmstadt

Information about our speakers

In reaction to increasing mobility in the course of internationalisation processes, most German HEIs resort to a language policy often labelled as English only in their so called international study programmes. The Technical University of Darmstadt though chose to take a different path. Commissioned and decided by its Executive Board in 2022, its specifically developed languages concept promotes functional multilingualism and comprises a catalogue of over 30 individual measures of implementation so far (see Bradlaw/Hufeisen/Nölle-Becker 2022b). These suggest in a very concrete manner how to increase the visibility as well as the use of the vast linguistic resources of all students, academic and non-academic staff at our university alike. It thus promotes the equality of all languages and their variants as well as the acceptance of diversity in German HE. In our presentation, we define our understanding of multilingualism and introduce our concept of functional multilingualism. Several examples will illustrate our languages policy put into practice. In addressing all members of our institution, we strive for an inclusive approach that allows for the use of multiple languages on campus. This contributes to achieving more justice for languages and equity of education as it ultimately fosters the democratic acceptance of diversity.

References

This panel discussion focuses on the integration of content and language in multilingual higher education, examining both the opportunities and challenges of this approach. Panellists, including experts in language pedagogy, ICLHE curriculum design, and international education, will explore how combining subject content with language learning enhances student engagement and academic outcomes in diverse, multilingual settings. The discussion will cover practical strategies for implementing content and language integration, addressing barriers such as professional development, institutional support, and varied student language proficiencies. The panel aims to foster dialogue on best practices and innovative solutions for supporting multilingual learners in higher education.

Chair:

• T.J. Ó Ceallaigh, University College Cork

Participants:

• Rami Douak, Ecole Normale Superieure de Constantine (ENSC)
• Ana Luiza Pires de Freitas, Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre
• Nathalie Schneider, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences (HSRM)
• Patrick Studer, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)
• Jennifer Valcke, Karolinska Institutet

Information about our speakers

Part 1: Enhancing ICLHE through reflective team-teaching: the best of both worlds | Julie Walaszczyk & Eliot Mbolo Ebubu

Julie Walaszczyk Language and Internationalisation Unit, Faculty of Translation and Interpretation, University of Mons (UMONS) Eliot Mbolo Ebubu Semiology and General Medicine Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, University of Mons (UMONS)

Information about our speakers

 

Team-teaching in ICLHE has gained significant research interest over the past few years and its pedagogical benefits have been largely explored from the students’ perspective, more specifically in terms of linguistic self-efficacy and the language support provided (McKinley & Rose, 2022; Lasagabaster, 2018; Lasagabaster et al, 2019; Walaszczyk & Segers, 2022). Few studies have looked into the dynamics of collaborative teaching models in ICLHE, and how the educators experience the shift in the balance of power, negotiation-making between content and language, and perhaps more importantly, their impact on teacher identity and roles.

Since 2019 the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy and the Language and Internationalisation Unit at the University of Mons Belgium have joined forces to implement an ICLHE approach to undergraduate practical classes focusing on four common respiratory diseases. This presentation will address the challenges but also the benefits of team-teaching and close collaboration from a socio-constructivist lens. For the purpose of this study, the researchers have used a self-reflective tool to analyse how teamwork materialised, to what extent it had an impact on their teaching practices and what insights it provided into future EMI educational approaches.

McKinley, J., & Rose, H. (2022). English language teaching and English-medium instruction: Putting research into practice. Journal of English-Medium Instruction, 1(1), 85-104.

Lasagabaster, D., Doiz , A. & Pavón, V. (2018). Undergraduates’ beliefs about the role of language and team teaching in EMI courses at university. Rassegna Italiana di Linguistica Applicata, 2 (3), 111-127.

Lasagabaster, D. (2018). Fostering team teaching: Mapping out a research agenda for English-medium instruction at university level. Language Teaching, 51(3), 400-416. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444818000113

Walaszczyk, J., & Segers, S. (2022). Shifting Assessment Online in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of an ICLHE Undergraduate Course in Medicine. In The Use of Technology in English Medium Education. Springer.

Part 2: Language Knowledge for Content Teaching in ICLHE | T.J. Ó Ceallaigh

T.J. Ó Ceallaigh, Associate Professor at the School of Education, University College Cork, Ireland

Information about our speakers

 

ICLHE educators face the dual challenge of delivering academic content while addressing the language learning needs of students who are studying in an additional language. While there is wide agreement that ICLHE teaching requires a specialised knowledge, few attempts have been made to conceptualise the language knowledge required for successful content and language integration in higher education. This workshop aims to address this lack of conceptualisation by enabling participants to:

• identify the language knowledge specific to ICLHE necessary for teaching academic content;
• engage in deep and challenging conversations about their craft;
• review and refine long-established beliefs and patterns of their ICLHE practice.

It's time for a short, low-level activation session. A member of our University Sports department will come along to remind us all of the benefits of movement during a busy conference day.

This session is dedicated to early career researchers who will have the opportunity to present their projects.

The session will start with a round of brief pitch talks where presenters will introduce their project posters to the plenum. This will be followed by a poster session, i.e. informal exchanges between the poster presenters and members of the audience. All presentations will be given on site.

Part 1: Exploring the C in ICLHE: Content learning in EMI settings | Anja Schüppert

Anja Schüppert, Associate Professor at the Center for Language and Cognition Groningen, The Netherlands.

Information about our speakers

 

Integrating content and language has been proven a successful method for various student populations and many languages, in particular if teachers and students are sufficiently supported. Ideally, among other things, this support includes teacher training, and raising awareness for specific challenges of this approach among students and staff. In the Netherlands, however, the integration of content and language has mainly taken the form of English-medium instruction (EMI), and the necessary support is often inadequate: implicitly, students and teachers are typically assumed to perform equally well in L1 Dutch and in L2 English. In this talk, I will summarise findings from a study that explored this implicit assumption, and set out to map the effect of (inadequately supported) EMI on students' content learning. In individual sessions, native Dutch-speaking first- and third-year BA students attended Dutch- and English-taught lectures using a VR headset with built-in eyetracking, and wrote a short exam after each of these lectures. We compared the Dutch and English exam data in first- and third year students. In addition, collecting gaze data enabled us to explore how students divided their attention to the different visuals during the lectures (teacher, board, fellow students etc.) and how this differed between Dutch and English. While most students performed well in the exams in both languages, our study suggests that some groups of students may need extra support to benefit from the integration of content and language in higher education.

Part 2: Researching English-medium higher education from the perspective of disciplinary literacies | Emma Dafouz & Ute Smit

Emma Dafouz, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
& Ute Smit, Universität Wien

Information about our speakers

 

As the vibrant research activities of the last years have given us rich insights into the potential and challenges of English medium higher education, it is time to zoom in on disciplinary literacies (DLs) for EME, which we understand as “the set of discipline-specific skills and communication practices that students require to navigate and engage effectively with disciplinary practices in both global and local contexts” (Dafouz et al 2023). In an endeavour to throw light on how students’ experience and engage with the disciplinary practices of their business bachelor degree, the SHIFT project collected diversified data sets over four years, including student surveys, student and teacher interviews, student presentations and written texts.

It is the aim of our talk to exemplify the complex and dynamic nature of DLs by focusing on the written data set of 39 case study texts produced collaboratively in a second-year course on ‘Organisation and Design’. Analysed from the perspective of Cognitive Discourse Functions (Dalton-Puffer 2013), this study offers a detailed account of the academic functions produced in response to the teacher prompts. Furthermore, the findings reveal the students’ current stage of academic writing, and point to their needs for developing adequate DLs for business studies. This has important pedagogical implications for raising awareness of DLs in EME amongst content teachers.

 

Dafouz, E., López-Serrano, S., & Pérez-Paredes, P. (2023). Students’ views of disciplinary literacies in internationalised English-medium higher education: Step-by-step survey development. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 2(3), 100073. doi: 10.1016/j.rmal.2023.100073

Dalton-Puffer, C. (2013). A construct of cognitive discourse functions for conceptualising content-language integration in CLIL and multilingual education. European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(2). doi: 10.1515/eujal-2013-0011

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the ICLHE Association will be held on Friday 11th October 2024 at 09:00 (CEST) both physically and online. All members are invited to participate!

This year, we’ll also use the AGM to hold elections for our board. If you want to become involved and join the board, please let us know and nominate yourself! More information on how to do so will follow soon.

At this Bring & Share session, practitioners can share ideas and information related to their support programmes for teachers and / or admin staff, including formats they provide and useful materials.

The session will begin with some participants giving brief pitch talks on their programmes and/or materials. Following this, there will be time for everyone to mingle and talk more informally about the formats and materials.

We would like to invite all participants to bring and share materials that have been useful in their own educational contexts, not just the presenters, and look forward to seeing the wonderful resources being used.

Bring & Share Pitch Talks

Paul Kelly & Patrick Studer, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland: Dialogues about dialogues: Opening teachers’ minds to authentic interaction

Louise Klein, Shirley Roth & Charla Schutte, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Germany: English for Staff - a support programme for educators, researchers and admin staff

Magdalena Walenta, University of Warsaw, Poland: When the linguist meets the content specialist – a few remarks on making the most of EMI classroom observations (and beyond).

Dan Walker, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Germany: Using English at Work: A look at English support offers for staff members at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences

Robert Wilkinson, Maastricht University, Netherlands and colleagues from NTNU (Taipei): Support for disciplinary experts through collaborative research

 

 

Join us shortly after lunch on Friday for a relaxing 50-minute sightseeing tour on a 'train' through Wiesbaden.

Departure time: 14:30 (Marktplatz 1)

Tickets: €11 per person

For those of you who still have time after the sightseeing trip, we can either go and have some great coffee at Kaufmanns and/or finish the day with a glass of wine at Balthasar Ress Weinbar & Vinothek.

Please note that your symposium fee does not include the cost of these leisure activities.