British Council: Teaching in English for Academics

This training course is delivered through the teaching approach it presents. Participants, who may already teach in higher education through English as the Medium of Instruction, or academics who are planning to start, will be able to try out the language and techniques acquired on the course in practical micro-teaching sessions followed by peer review and comprehensive trainer feedback. 

This course not only updates participants’ language skills for a variety of contexts from large lectures, interactive seminars, to one-to-one supervision, but provides more specific practice of language to better define and explain terminology, formulate questions to stimulate critical thinking, and manage learning, among other linguistic aspects.

This 4-day course is interactive and grounded in discussion and group work, modelling an innovative approach to day-to-day teaching practices which include: 

• addressing a mixed language-level and culturally diverse student body 
• structuring and signalling the stages of a lecture 
• asking the right questions to deepen learning
• encouraging student participation to aid understanding
• using visual aids to enhance linguistic comprehension 
• giving effective feedback

Your institution can benefit from this course through:

• the enhanced teaching quality of its English-taught courses
• the ability to attract a more diverse student body
• recognition as a strongly international contender in tertiary education

The course can run as a 4-day consecutive intensive workshop or customised to meet the institution’s needs.

This short course, delivered online, considers the challenges of teaching academic subjects online through English as the Medium of Instruction, and offers some practical solutions. Participants will have the opportunity to try out the language and techniques acquired on the course in practical micro-teaching sessions for which they will receive feedback.  Topics covered on the course include:   

• Challenges in EMI teaching  
• Use of technology for online teaching - synchronous and asynchronous 
• From face-to-face to online – adapting materials 
• Encouraging student participation to aid understanding  
• Explaining key terms 
• Useful language and clarity of pronunciation 
• Asking questions to deepen learning 
• Planning and assessment 

The course is intended to run over five or six 4-hour live sessions with some supplementary asynchronous activities. The timetable can be customised to meet the institution’s needs.

This hands-on 3-day workshop aims to develop the skills required to deliver academic conference presentations in English. We consider the scope, structure and language characteristic of this genre; we explore good practice in relation to associated kinds of visual support, such as PowerPoint and posters; and we look at how spoken delivery can impede or enhance communication of the message. We further discuss issues raised by the need to be able to give unplanned responses to questions in the Q & A session.

Participants will also have the opportunity to plan, prepare and deliver a brief English language presentation, receiving feedback on the effectiveness of the communication. Throughout the workshop, participants from different academic disciplines will be encouraged to support one another through the exchange of considered critiques, appropriate to the culture of academic discussion.

The course can run as a 3-day consecutive intensive workshop or customised to meet the institution’s needs.

This workshop considers the principles underlying the design and planning of both English Medium of Instruction academic courses and specific lessons. Taking the desired learning outcomes as our starting point, we explore ways of deciding the appropriate scope in relation to content, and different options in terms of structure and pedagogical style. 

We contrast inductive and deductive teaching sequences, examine the range of possible functions questions can represent, demonstrate dialogic practice, and offer suggestions for effectively incorporating interactive features into teaching. Finally, we address the area of assessment, the various functions it can satisfy, a range of tactics for implementation regarding spoken and written work, and the issues and challenges it raises.

During the workshop, participants will work with colleagues to adjust and improve the design of classes they already teach or plan to teach.

The course can run as a 2-day consecutive intensive workshop or customised to meet the institution’s needs.

This one-day workshop provides explanations, demonstrations and practice in using your voice to address small or large groups in academic contexts, covering both the vocal mechanics and the language you need.  

Topics include: 

Voice projection - helps you speak clearly, projecting your voice without shouting 

Body language and gestures – to accompany your lecture and aid understanding 

Pronunciation:

• of individual sounds and connected speech 
• word stress and sentence stress 
• intonation, the melody in your voice tone 
• chunking – the rhythm in sentences 

Lecture language:

• introducing and closing your lecture  
• transition language from one section to another 
• asking and answering questions  

The course can run as a 1-day intensive workshop or customised to meet the institution’s needs.

The aim of this module is to explore how cultural diversity in the EMI classroom can have an impact on teaching practices and learning behaviour. The workshop will focus on developing strategies to deal with the cultural challenges facing lecturers teaching mixed cohorts of local and international students in multicultural learning contexts. Using mind-maps, group activities, videos and individual presentations, participants will learn techniques designed to improve student engagement, overcome cultural misunderstandings, and enhance intercultural communication in the EMI classroom.