Content and language integration at universities? Collaborative reflections

ABSTRACT

This paper reflects on the contributions to this special issue, which offers a timely insight into research trends on the integration of content and language in higher education. The principle focus of the papers lies on the effects of English as the instructional language, in line with the professional activity of the authors. The papers amplify several trends in English-medium instruction (EMI) research: collaboration, identity, and teacher training. In a world where both students and teachers are increasingly transient, the studies serve to identify ways of promoting effective learning among students with differential language constellations, including language minority students, so that speakers from specific language groups are not marginalized or excluded.

KEYWORDS:

• Content and language integrated learning (CLIL)
• English-medium instruction
• collaboration
• teacher identity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Robert Wilkinson worked at the Language Centre of Maastricht University until 2014, and since then for various offices of the university. He is chair of the ICLHE Association.

ORCID

Robert Wilkinson http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8737-3357

Notes

1 Bonnie Norton Pierce, later Bonny Norton.

2 It’s worth recalling how Barber’s article begins: ‘During recent years, English has increasingly become a medium for the teaching and learning of other subjects. This use of English as an auxiliary language is especially important in those countries where a great deal of university-teaching is carried out in English (e.g. India); but it is also important in many other countries, which rely to a great extent on textbooks written in English, especially at the university level.’ (Barber 1962; reprinted in Swales 1985, 3).