Ressenyes

Obra ressenyada: Virgilio MOYA, La selva de la traducción. Teorías traductológicas contemporáneas. Madrid: Cátedra, 2004

Repositioning English-Medium Instruction in a Broader International Agenda: Insights from a Survey on Teacher Professional Development

As a result of the internationalization of higher education across the globe, many programmes in non-Anglophone countries are shifting to English-medium instruction (EMI) to attract international students and staff, develop global skills in the home student body and increase employability (Dafouz and Smit 2020). Against this background, the purpose of this article is to argue for the need to reposition EMI teacher professional development (TPD) in a broader engagement portfolio, one that aligns more directly with the internationalization strategies of universities and that incorporates all the agencies involved. Adopting an applied linguistic angle, this study focused specifically on the Strategic Action Plan for TPD implemented between 2016-2019 at a large Spanish university. Methodologically, the study drew on an intra-university survey addressed to academic staff (n=2091) as a needs-analysis to tap into lecturers’ views of internationalization and EMI. The results will be useful for universities wishing to develop EMI TPD initiatives from an international perspective. The study closes with a reflection on the implications for the stakeholders involved, from university management, to academic staff, EMI educational developers and English language specialists

‘Does everybody understand?’ Teacher questions across disciplines in English-mediated university lectures: An exploratory study

This small-scale study attempts to analyse the role of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in three different university lectures across disciplines. Following previous research (Crawford Camiciottoli 2004, Dafouz 2011, Dalton-Puffer 2007), the focus is placed on teacher discourse and, more specifically, teacher questions as fundamental tools that articulate classroom talk and prime strategies that promote interaction and co-construct meanings (Chang 2012, Sánchez García 2010). Our corpus includes four hours of teaching practice from Spanish EMI lessons where participants are non-native speakers of the vehicular language. Preliminary results suggest that questions tend to be greatly exploited discursive features and that confirmation checks and display questions seem to predominate over all other types of questions used in the classroom. Concurrently, the study suggests that there seem to be more commonalities than differences in the use of questions across disciplines. Additionally, it can be stated that lecturers need to be trained to benefit from the resources offered by their own discourse in order to facilitate students' content and language learning

The Question of Descriptors for Academic Writing in European Language Framework: a Critical View

Since the 1960s, with the influx of a great number of students, both native and non-native, with little experience in formal academic discourse, universities in the English-speaking world have become increasingly aware of the need to offer specific instruction in writing skills. This situation required a clearer definition of what the characteristics of this particular type of writing might be (Grabe & Kaplan 1996) and it became apparent that many of the existing teaching materials concentrated overly on normative, grammatical considerations and not on a broader perspective based on discursive competence. Therefore, since the 1990s, there has been more emphasis on the analysis of the rhetorical conventions of various genres, including cross-linguistic comparisons (Connor 1995; Flowerdew 2000; Hyland 2002; Neff et al. 2004; Neff and Dafouz 2008).Because of the utilization of English as a “lingua franca” in the global community (Gnutzman and Intemann 2005) and the growth of student exchange programs within Europe, it has become progressively evident that both students and teachers require a clear set of guidelines, such as those provided by the EU framework descriptors for various areas of linguistic competency. But, as the difficulties experienced by non-native writers of academic English are very genre specific and appear to be largely independent of purely linguistic competency (many native novice writers also find academic writing problematic), the EU descriptors for academic work are too broad for the type of writing that our students must carry out in tertiary institutions.While much work is clearly being done within universities and colleges to address the prototypical academic writing skills in English, it would be helpful for all concerned if more specific guidelines could be shared. Thus, one major aim of this study is to draw up a series of structural and rhetorical descriptors and evaluate our students’ written production before and after using them in order to test their relevance for our syllabus and perhaps for use by a wider audience in the future

Exploring the impact of English-medium instruction on university student academic achievement: The case of accounting

As higher education institutions (HEIs) across the world strive to become increasingly international, English-medium instruction (EMI) is swiftly becoming mainstream in contexts where English has traditionally held a foreign language status. This change in the language of instruction has given rise to a number of concerns, which are still largely under-explored. Amongst these, research into the effects of EMI on students' disciplinary knowledge is of great importance and should be regarded as crucial so that HEIs offer the same possibilities for student construction of knowledge, irrespective of the language used. Our paper duly examines the impact that EMI may have on student academic performance when compared to their counterparts' in their L1 (Spanish). As sample data, a comparable set of first year student grades was collected for the subject of Financial Accounting I in a Spanish university during four academic years (2010–14). A total of 383 student grades were gathered and compared using mean difference tests. Overall, findings show no statistical differences across groups and that the use of EMI does not lower student final academic outcomes. These results may be relevant for other EMI contexts, the business education community and ESP course developers in general

Towards a new classroom dynamic? A comparative analysis of students’ learning strategies in English vs. in Spanish degrees

La estrategia de internacionalización llevada a cabo por las universidades europeas, unida al cambio de metodología Bolonia, ha supuesto para las universidades españolas la implementación de grados impartidos en inglés. El objetivo de este trabajo es comparar empíricamente si las estrategias de aprendizaje meta-cognitivas, cognitivas y socio-afectivas del alumnado que estudia un mismo grado difieren por la utilización de una lengua de comunicación diferente. Para ello, se utilizan técnicas estadísticas multi-variantes con una muestra de estudiantes matriculados en el primer año del Grado en Administración y Dirección de Empresas en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Los alumnos que reciben clase en inglés tienen algunas estrategias de aprendizaje diferentes a los de castellano, siendo en las estrategias meta-cognitivas en las que más diferencias se observan. Los alumnos de los grados impartidos en inglés demuestran ser más colaboradores, comunicadores y participativos trabajando más en equipo y consiguiendo una dinámica de clase más interactiva.University strategies of internationalisation together with the foundation of the European Area of Higher Education have driven Spanish universities into joining this trend creating the degrees taught in English. The aim of this research is to compare empirically if the students’ learning strategies (meta-cognitive, cognitive and socio-affective) are the same in an “English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI)” group as in a non-EMI one. A sample of students from the degree of Business Administration at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the UCM has been analysed. Students have different learning strategies if they belong to the EMI group, particularly the meta-cognitive strategies. Students from the EMI group are more participative, communicative and collaborative with their peers, working more efficiently in teams, resulting also in a more interactive class dynamic.Instituto Complutense de Estudios InternacionalesTRUEpu

Mentor-ING (mentorías en inglés para la internacionalización)

Este proyecto tiene como objetivo la creación de un programa piloto de mentorías entre profesores que tengan experiencia en la enseñanza en grados y/o itinerarios bilingües (español-inglés) y profesores noveles que todavía no tengan dicha experiencia. Actualmente la internacionalización de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) se ha convertido en un objetivo institucional prioritario. Con el fin de convertirnos en una universidad más competitiva a nivel nacional e internacional y preparar al alumnado para ser funcionales en un mundo altamente globalizado, la UCM ha puesto en marcha el Plan para la Internacionalización de la Docencia aprobado en Consejo de Gobierno el 26 de abril de 2016 (UCM, 2016; UCM, 2019a). Se trata de un Plan transversal e integral que persigue establecer un marco internacional, intercultural y multilingüe que ponga las bases para una eficaz internacionalización de la oferta académica. Con este objetivo se intentan preservar y promover los programas que utilizan el español como lengua de trabajo a la vez que se incentiva de manera progresiva la oferta de programas impartidos a través de la lengua inglesa (EME). A día de hoy la oferta de programas bilingües, tanto de grado como de máster, es muy amplia y continúa creciendo notablemente, siendo ya numerosas las titulaciones que cuentan con una trayectoria consolidada en la oferta de asignaturas en inglés. Desde la perspectiva de los docentes universitarios, que son expertos en el contenido disciplinar y no en la lengua, los profesores ahora interactúan, negocian, construyen significados y explican contenidos a través de una segunda lengua (L2). Es por ello que el inglés adquiere el papel de lengua franca (ELF) en la universidad (Jenkins, 2006; Suviniity, 2014; Mauranen, 2015). Todos estos motivos han contribuido al interés científico por investigar tanto la implantación de la instrucción a través del inglés en la educación superior (Airey, 2009; Dalton-Puffer, 2011; Fortanet-Gómez, 2013; Francomacaro, 2011) como, más concretamente, las implicaciones lingüísticas y pedagógicas que este nuevo enfoque educativo supone para el discurso en el aula (Dafouz, 2006, 2008, 2011, 215, 2017, 2018; Núñez Perucha & Dafouz, 2007; Bellés-Fortuño, 2008; Nikula, 2010; Nikula, Dalton-Puffer & Llinares, 2015; Sánchez-García, 2016, 2018a, 2018b). De estos y otros muchos estudios empíricos se desprende que concienciar al profesorado de que el cambio de la lengua de instrucción va más allá de tener un nivel alto de competencia lingüística en dicho idioma es fundamental en la preparación de estos docentes. El profesorado debe ser consciente de que será imprescindible adaptar su competencia comunicativa, pragmática, pedagógica e intercultural a este nuevo contexto en el que el papel de la lengua y el discurso adquieren una nueva dimensión e importancia a la hora de garantizar el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Es por tanto de imperiosa necesidad ofrecer una formación específica al profesorado para el desarrollo de estas competencias. Este proyecto de innovación docente pretende, por tanto, contribuir a la mejora de la calidad docente y a los cursos de formación del profesorado que están actualmente en vigor en la UCM (UCM, 2019b). Es más, ofrece dos puntos innovadores: (1) propone la creación de un programa de mentorías para crear una comunidad de aprendizaje entre docentes, y (2) desarrollará un repositorio sostenible de recursos didácticos online