Integrating Content and English-Language Learning in a Middle Eastern Information Technology College: Investigating Faculty Perceptions, Practices and Capabilities

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Source of Publication

Proceedings of the 2016 InSITE Conference

Publication Date

1-1-2016

Abstract

The expanding role of English as an international lingua franca has had considerable effects on higher education (HE) provision around the world. English has become the medium of choice for African HE, and its position as a medium of instruction in the Europe and Asia is strengthening (Coleman, 2006; HU, 2009). English-medium tertiary education is also commonplace in the Middle East including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the context of the present study, where the vast majority of courses at university-level are conducted in English (Gallagher, 2011). The increasing use of English-medium programs presents particular challenges for content-area faculty who are in effect called upon to provide disciplinary instruction to students who may not be adequately language proficient. Furthermore, discipline-specific faculty may find themselves sharing responsibility to further develop their students’ English language proficiency. Information technology related schools face unique challenges. A significant majority of IT faculty come from computer science/engineering backgrounds and speak English as a second or third language. Most courses emphasize the development of technical skills and afford relatively few opportuni-ties for writing assignments. While exploratory in nature, the study proposes to identify and evaluate practices that can help IT colleges better develop their students’ proficiency in English.

Publisher

Informing Science Institute

First Page

21

Last Page

29

Disciplines

Education

Indexed in Scopus

no

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Bronze: This publication is openly available on the publisher’s website but without an open license

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS