The integration of language and content in English-medium instruction courses: Lecturers’ beliefs and practices

Abstract

This paper investigates the challenges lecturers face in English-medium instruction (EMI) programs and explores their beliefs concerning possible collaboration with language specialists through team-teaching, an option which would offer linguistic support to teachers and students. We used data gathered from discussion groups involving lecturers at two Spanish universities. Results show that the main challenges EMI lecturers have to deal with relate to the specificities of teaching in a foreign language. EMI lecturers acknowledge that the benefits of collaborating with language lecturers could prove to be a valuable asset, its value outweighing any initial misgivings.

Keywords

• emi
• content teachers
• language teachers
• team teaching
• teachers’ beliefs