English language teaching in the European Higher Education Area: from policy to practice

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Luisa Pérez Cañado
2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882110609
Author(s):  
Kim Murray ◽  
José Reis-Jorge ◽  
Julie-Anne Regan

Research in language learning indicates that process drama (PD), an educational approach where students and teachers work in and out of role to explore themes and issues, can be well suited to the Japanese higher education (HE) context. Despite the benefits highlighted in the literature, PD remains a niche approach to language teaching and learning, with a limited number of practitioners in Japan. This study seeks to uncover language teachers’ experiences of becoming Process Drama Practitioners (PDPs) and using and sharing PD as an English language teaching approach in Japanese HE. Data were collected via in-depth interviews with six experienced PDPs. The findings indicate that prior positive experiences with drama was an encouraging factor of the adoption and self-directed initial use of PD in their teaching practices. Positive student outcomes and feedback were primary motivators for continued use of PD. Experiences of sharing PD led to a perceived need to distinguish PD from theatre-based approaches and establish connections to familiar approaches to language teaching.


Author(s):  
Hamza R'boul ◽  
M Camino Bueno-Alastuey

Teaching English in higher education entails additional factors and considerations that exemplify the complexity of accounting for the diverse population in modern higher education institutions. In particular, the increasing flow of international students and the employment demands of functioning in multicultural contexts render helping students to develop a critical understating of intercultural relations an important aspect of English language teaching. With the increasing adoption of English as a medium of instruction and its use as a lingua franca in intercultural communication, it is important to structure English education in a way that accounts for intercultural relations both in and outside the university. In addition to the postmodern conceptualizations of interculturality that emphasize the fluidity of culture, language and identity intercultural relations are characterized by power imbalances. That is why this chapter makes a case for the necessity of considering sociopolitical realities in intercultural English language teaching in higher education.


2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 641-648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafaela Camacho-Bejarano ◽  
Ana Barquero-González ◽  
María Isabel Mariscal-Crespo ◽  
Dolores Merino-Navarro

OBJECTIVE: The new competence profile of nursing professionals, scientific and medical development, the free circulation of health professionals worldwide, and the increasing social and cultural diversity requires that nurses have specific abilities in spoken and written English. The objective of this research is to describe the characteristics of the English language training required for a Bachelors of Nursing in Spain. METHOD: A descriptive cross-sectional observational study has been performed in forty-six Spanish universities that offer the Bachelor in nursing degree. RESULTS: In line with the directives of the European Higher Education Area, all universities contemplate the mandatory credit of a second language emphasizing English, although there is considerable variability in the emphasis: 39.4% do not include any English subject, and of the remaining 60.6% who do include it, 60% considered it an elective subject, 32.5% basic education, and 7.5% mandatory. CONCLUSIONS: The English training has different characteristics in each university, which implies a different commitment from each center for this learning. This fact questions the adequacy of the education in relation to the new competence profile required by the European Higher Education Area, which may adversely affect future professional development.


Author(s):  
Figen Kizil ◽  
Mustafa Cem Babadogan

The idea of establishing the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), aiming to establish a balance between diversity and unity among higher education institutions, started with the Sorbonne Declaration, first published in 1998.The EHEA seeks to ensure that higher education systems are compatible and comparable to one another while preserving their unique differences. This study is aimed to examine the programme competencies of the Department of English Language and Literature. To represent the universe, a state university offering education in English Language and Literature from Turkey’s seven regions are chosen, aimed to create a common language for writing the competencies and correct the existing programme competencies. In order to bring the programmes together on a common ground and to be recognised both nationally and internationally, it is important to ensure that the programme competencies are written in a more simplified way without creating comorbidity and classified in the right sub-categories. The study was carried out with case studies from qualitative research methods.Keywords: European Higher Education Area, Bologna process, Bologna information system, competence.


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