Bridging the gap: Integrating Content and Language in the English-Mediated Classroom

Journal article, 2016

English is being used as the medium of instruction in an increasing number and range of courses, programs and universities. It is therefore crucial that both teachers and students can deal with the demands that such a study environment places upon them in order to maintain the same quality of education. Such demands include issues of processing the content and learning materials, and interacting with classmates and instructors in English. This article discusses how integrating content and language teaching (ICL) could be one way to address some of these challenges. ICL is defined in this context as content and language teachers working together on the same course. One example is given of the electrical engineering program at a technical university where content and language are integrated throughout the program in order to provide the students with the skills required both by the EMI university environment but also by the workplace of today. Factors in designing such courses are discussed such as the learning objectives of the program; integrated activities; deep approaches to learning; formative feedback over summative feedback; and peer learning. It is argued that the collaboration between the “outsider” (the language teacher) and the “insider” (the content teacher) provide the former with an insight into the demands of the discipline on the student and the latter with an increased awareness of academic literacies.