One major challenge for English-medium teachers stems from teaching students from different cultural backgrounds in a language that is not the teachers' mother tongue. Second language speakers tend to be less specific in their expressions and also use less signposting, which are two crucial points in teaching. Other challenges involve cultural differences. For example, English-medium teachers must explain educational methods explicitly, because they are not familiar to most of the students. Furthermore, cultural and linguistic barriers often hinder instructors from seeing what is polite and what is not in the eyes of the students.
The workshop, organized by ITBE Educational Services and Training and Dr. Renate Klaassen and Evelyn van de Veen from Delft University, addresses and suggests solutions to these challenges. The workshop is based on the Klaasen's PhD thesis. Similar workshops are delivered with much success at Delft University.
The workshop on February 15 included role-play, simulations, videos, time for reflection - all aimed at improving English-medium teaching and communication in Dutch universities.
According to Van de Veen, the workshop objectives include enabling participants to recognize student difficulties in English-medium lectures, to recognize strengths and weaknesses in one's lecturing skills when providing English-medium instructions, to adopt lecturing behavior that supports students' understanding, and to recognize problems associated with teaching international groups of students.
These four main points form the basis of the weekly workshops that began on February 8. Van de Veen is pleased that responses from participants have been so encouraging. For example, two participants - of the five - declared that the workshop has been useful, emphasizing the importance of such a workshop for all teachers at the UT. The experience has made them especially aware of some issues they had underestimated to be a barrier in communication between teachers and international students. Specifically, they praised the use of role-play, which exposed them to real-life classroom situations.
Susan van Soest, from ITBE Educational Services and Training, stated that this workshop is part of a series `Principles of teaching in English' focusing on communication in the international classroom as well as spoken and written English language in the classroom. The next workshop in this series `Intercultural communication in educational settings' takes place March 8. The last two workshops `Spoken English for lecturers' and `Writing course materials in English' will be offered on March 22.
As participants attested, the workshop is especially important for seeking to improve teachers' understanding of international students' backgrounds. Such workshops are essential resources for faculty members in the quickly diversifying international community at the UT. For information on upcoming workshops, contact Susan van Soest at [email protected] or Maria van der Blij at [email protected]
