What can EAP tutors do for EMI lecturers?

This talk aims to engender discussion about how EAP tutors can support non-native speaker lecturers in an EMI context. I will first review research on EMI lecture discourse, including my study about discourse organizational signals in native and non-native lecturer speech (cf. Deroey, 2015). Next I will present the results of an extensive needs analysis into lecturers’ perceived needs for EMI support at the multilingual University of Luxembourg. The needs analysis, which was performed by the University Language Centre, encompassed a university-wide online questionnaire (N=400) and semi-structured interviews with academic course directors (N=25). Results revealed that most EMI lecturers felt their English is at CEF level C2 and hence they were not usually looking to improve their English. Nevertheless, quite a few wanted to improve their pronunciation and grammar and were interested in training to help them teach in a language that is not their mother tongue. Similarly, the course directors were more concerned with lecturers improving their English for research writing rather than for lecturing. Finally, I will provide examples of how European universities have tried to support their staff in teaching through the medium of English. With this talk I hope to paint an informative picture of the needs EMI lecturers may have and open up a discussion about issues surrounding the provision of adequate and appropriate support. Deroey, K. L. B. (2015). Marking importance in lectures: interactive and textual orientation. Applied Linguistics, 36(1), 51-72. doi:10.1093/applin/amt02