“Non-Native” Teachers Teaching Content in English: A Reflective Practice Approach

English-medium instruction (EMI) programmes are on the upswing in universities all over the world. However, the literature indicates that EMI instructors hardly pay any attention to the language aspect, in the belief that they are content –and not language– teachers. In an attempt to make EMI teache...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Doiz Bienzobas, Aintzane, Lasagabaster Herrarte, David
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositorio:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/75009
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/75009
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:English-medium instruction (EMI)
teachers
reflective practice
teacher-fronted questions
English
classroom observation
Descripción
Sumario:English-medium instruction (EMI) programmes are on the upswing in universities all over the world. However, the literature indicates that EMI instructors hardly pay any attention to the language aspect, in the belief that they are content –and not language– teachers. In an attempt to make EMI teachers reflect on the paramount role that language and, in particular, teacher-fronted questions play in their classes, in this study four EMI history teachers were video-recorded during six two-hour-long sessions each. Following Gall and Acheson (2011), the three steps of clinical supervision were implemented: planning conference, classroom observation, and feedback conference. By including the teachers as active participants in the process, both the researchers and the teachers looked at the data gathered in the classroom observations and analysed them. As a result of the side-by-side supervision, decisions were made on an equal footing by the researcher and the teacher. This model of supervision provides EMI teachers with objective feedback on their instruction, while they are encouraged to reach their own conclusions. Differences in the receptiveness to the reflective practice among the teachers were observed, suggesting the need to work with teachers on the benefits of professional teaching interventions, such as the one described here.