EMI Lecturer Training Programmes and Academic Literacies

Abstract

As EMI involves the integration of content and discipline-specific communication, this study focuses on intersections between ESP and EMI, especially on how ESP can contribute to improving discipline-specific communication in EMI from the perspective of content lecturers' needs. Specifically, this study provides an overview of EMI training programmes offered by universities in Catalonia (Spain), and explores the written genres assigned by content lecturers in EMI subjects. EMI training programmes are classified according to their orientation: communication, pedagogy, and multilingualism/multiculturalism (Fortanet-Gomez, 2010; Kurtan, 2003). Our analysis pays special attention to the extent to which there is an ESP focus in such training and is complemented by a questionnaire to a group of EMI lecturers on their reported use/teaching of disciplinary genres, following Nesi and Gardner (2012). Findings shed light on practices and expectations related to discipline-specific genre pedagogy, an area that is at the crossroads between EMI and ESP. By examining lecturer perspectives on EMI alongside institutional policies and training programmes, this study can help lecturers cope with the challenges of EMI, and contribute to further developing EMI-ESP lecturer collaboration.