A Postscript on Institutional Motivations, Research Concerns and Professional Implications

• Published in: AILA review 2012-01, Vol.25, p.101-103
• Main Author: Dalton-Puffer, Christiane
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied Linguistics; English (Second Language); Europe; Foreign Countries; Immersion Programs; Language of Instruction; Language Role; Learning Motivation; Periodicals; Second Language Learning; Stakeholders; Teaching Methods
• ISSN: 1461-0213; 1570-5595
• DOI: 10.1075/aila.25.07dal

From the point of view of AILA's research network "CLIL and Immersion Education: Applied Linguistic Perspectives" this volume finally does justice to a strand of interest that has been part of the network from its inception. As the editors rightly point out in the introduction, ReN events and publications during the network's first period have focused more strongly on school-level education than on the post-secondary sector, and so it is truly timely that this volume of "AILA Review" should redress the balance. In combination, the contributions in this collection weave a multifaceted picture of the European experience with regard to the ongoing surge in English-medium university teaching, ranging from individual courses to entire curricula being administered in that language. As one reviews the motives and aims which institutions and stakeholders appear to connect with the introduction of English-medium teaching one can, the author wishes to argue, discern three broad types of motivation: (1) Strategic; (2) Pedagogical; and (3) Substantial. The contributions to this volume furnish examples for all of these motives even though they may not be considered equally important by the participants in each context. Despite the special dynamism present in European higher education today, the author would not like to ignore the concerns shared across the AILA Research Network as a whole. The fact that researchers with different contextual orientations have been interacting and cooperating profitably and successfully since 2006 is witness enough that there is a significant number of common concerns where a shared discourse helps to clarify the issues and to sharpen theoretical and methodological notions. Subject-matter teaching in English raises highly relevant questions regarding the role of English as an educational lingua franca, a subject which the contributions in this volume also begin to explore. But the practices described in the studies are intriguing to applied linguists not only in terms of their theoretical and empirical research interests. They also affect them on a very direct professional level: subject-matter teaching in English transgresses well-established disciplinary and system-inherent borders creating considerable insecurities along the way.