The internationalisation of Higher Education Institutions is a process conceived of not as an end in itself but as a means to improve the quality of education, research and services (De Wit and Leask 2015). However, one of the consequences of this phenomenon is that lecturers are often called on to embrace the challenge of teaching their subject through a foreign language without receiving formal training in this, especially in countries where English-taught programs are still in their infancy, such as Italy. With the aim of supporting academic staff in this transition, the Academic Lecturing programme has been set up in a medium-sized public university in the north-east of Italy: it is specifically designed for lecturers who teach their subject through English and aims to raise their awareness of the impact of the internationalisation process on teaching, the more extensive set of skills needed for teaching and learning in English, and the increased heterogeneity of the student population. The purpose of the programme is also to help participants try their hand at new teaching methods and new technologies as a means of making lessons more interactive, thus increasing their accessibility and making them more effective, and to help participants to improve their strategic use of English within their disciplinary field. The professional development programme will be reported in the light of both a brief description of the programme format—a course and a one-to-one support service—and the feedback received from participants in the various editions so far. This feedback will be used to inform the future development of the programme, with a view to encouraging increased collaboration between language specialists and content specialists (Lyster 2017, Wingate 2018), thus further addressing the need for a more integrated use of language and content in university lectures.

As a global phenomenon, internationalisation exerts a great impact on Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) all over the world. Among the stakeholders mostly affected are the academic staff. The situation is especially critical in Italy, where teacher training was not a priority in pre-Covid times and where the outbreak and effects of the pandemic have been severe. These circumstances contribute to making Italian university teachers’ needs and concerns in post-pandemic EMI (English Medium Instruction) an area particularly worth exploring. This contribution investigates the case of a middle-sized public University in Northern Italy, where a needs analysis questionnaire was sent to the academic staff to understand how they address the additional challenges that internationalisation poses to teaching, with special regard to the provision of EMI. We also inquired into whether the pandemic has modified the teachers’ styles of teaching, and in which ways.

This Working Paper is published under the auspices of the Department of Management at Università Ca' Foscari Venezia. Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and not those of the Department or the University. The Working Paper series is designed to divulge preliminary or incomplete work, circulated to favour discussion and comments. Citation of this paper should consider its provisional nature.

No abstract

No abstract