I am still happy with the focus of the books I helped publishing in the years I worked at Maastricht University Language Centre. I would like to present them again, even in the setting of a new website some fifteen years later. Of course, the texts reflect the reality of those times. Academic teaching has changed, with the growing internationalization of our universities, the overwhelming availability of internet and social media and the more widespread experience with English Medium Instruction – the phenomenon these volumes are dedicated to. But many of the questions and issues discussed in the articles remain relevant. It is mainly the answers that have to be reconsidered and can be improved. The concepts expressed in the book titles are still among the most essential issues of EMI:
- Multilingual Approaches in University Education : we did not introduce EMI in order to create an English Only academic environment, but to help our students to develop a multilingual profile. Yet, it remains a challenge to give a place to multilingual approaches in the academic curriculum.
- Integrating Content and Language : the key for success in EMI is the way language and content teachers work together and combine their approaches, their materials and their classes ;
- Bridging the Assessment Gap: there are many content and language assessment challenges in English-medium programmes, at entry to, during and exit from University ;
- Researching Content and Language Integration in Higher Education : there is not enough research about success and shortcomings in EMI. Do we really understand why some practices are successful and others much less? And how do we define success?
The books were published on the occasion of the conferences Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education at Maastricht University, in 2003 and 2006. The ICLHE-association continues with its pioneer work and I am happy to be one of its members. The next conferences are announced in Bressanone 11-12 June 2021 and Maastricht, 19-21 October 2021.
Charles van Leeuwen & Bob Wilkinson (ed.), Multilingual Approaches in University Education : Challenges and Practices (Valkhof Pers, Nijmegen 2003)
Robert Wilkinson (ed.), Integrating Content and Language: Meeting the challenge of a Multilingual Higher Education (Maastricht 2004)
Robert Wilkinson, Vera Zegers & Charles van Leeuwen, Bridging the Assessment Gap in English-medium Higher Education. AKS-Fremdsprachen in Lehre und Forschung, 40 (Bochum 2006)
Robert Wilkinson and Vera Zegers, Researching Content and Language Integration in Higher Education (Valkhof Pers, Nijmegen 2007)
(Of course, I can only link to my own contributions in these volumes, about feasability of policy, conceiving a bilingual university, assessment practices, models and realities)
I am still happy with the focus of the books I helped publishing in the years I worked at Maastricht University Language Centre. I would like to present them again, even in the setting of a new website some fifteen years later. Of course, the texts reflect the reality of those times. Academic teaching has changed, with the growing internationalization of our universities, the overwhelming availability of internet and social media and the more widespread experience with English Medium Instruction – the phenomenon these volumes are dedicated to. But many of the questions and issues discussed in the articles remain relevant. It is mainly the answers that have to be reconsidered and can be improved. The concepts expressed in the book titles are still among the most essential issues of EMI:
- Multilingual Approaches in University Education : we did not introduce EMI in order to create an English Only academic environment, but to help our students to develop a multilingual profile. Yet, it remains a challenge to give a place to multilingual approaches in the academic curriculum.
- Integrating Content and Language : the key for success in EMI is the way language and content teachers work together and combine their approaches, their materials and their classes.
- Bridging the Assessment Gap: there are many content and language assessment challenges in English-medium programmes, at entry to, during and exit from University.
- Researching Content and Language Integration in Higher Education : there is not enough research about success and shortcomings in EMI. Do we really understand why some practices are successful and others much less? And how do we define success?
The books were published on the occasion of the conferences Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education at Maastricht University, in 2003 and 2006. The ICLHE-association continues with its pioneer work and I am happy to be one of its members.
Of course, I can only link to my own contributionsin these volumes, about feasability of policy, conceiving a bilingual university, assessment practices, models and realities.
Charles van Leeuwen & Bob Wilkinson (ed.), Multilingual Approaches in University Education : Challenges and Practices (Valkhof Pers, Nijmegen 2003)
Robert Wilkinson (ed.), Integrating Content and Language: Meeting the challenge of a Multilingual Higher Education (Maastricht 2004)
Robert Wilkinson, Vera Zegers & Charles van Leeuwen, Bridging the Assessment Gap in English-medium Higher Education. AKS-Fremdsprachen in Lehre und Forschung, 40 (Bochum 2006)
Robert Wilkinson and Vera Zegers, Researching Content and Language Integration in Higher Education (Valkhof Pers, Nijmegen 2007)