Training teachers for English Medium Instruction: lessons from research on second language listening comprehension

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and EMI (English Medium Instruction) practices have outpaced theory and teacher training. There is a need to provide answers to some of the key issues such as the language requirements. This paper aims to show that knowledge from English for Specific Purposes and English for Academic Purposes, fields which have provided effective teaching practices and materials, could now be used in CLIL/EMI. The paper focuses on two of these. First, the issues related to second language academic listening comprehension and, secondly, the findings from research on it and their implications for student / lecturer training and materials design. These implications and suggestions are summarized. The paper concludes providing some language learning resources originally targeted to students but which could become tools for (self) training of those teachers who need to update their language skills for CLIL.<p> </p>

Arabic as a Second Language Listening Comprehension: Instruction and Assessment

The purpose of this paper is to present some instructional ideas for listening comprehension in Arabic as a second language (ASL) and their alignment with listening assessment. Among the suggestions are using spoken texts as instructional input, introducing the micro- and macro markers and providing students with authentic listening texts. In addition, the paper also highlights the importance of awareness-raising on the differences between spoken and written language among ASL learners. To expand the extant of the scope of possible instructional ideas for ASL listening, the discussion on pre-teaching of listening input and its connection to learners’ schemata is also included. To consolidate the discussion on instructional ideas, communicative reciprocal listening instruction is recommended for ASL listening instruction. Apart from instructional ideas, suggestions on how to develop a ‘considerate’ ASL listening assessment that is in alignment with classroom instruction are also presented in this paper.