EMI lecturer training and the EAP practitioner

This talk surveys EMI lecturer training programmes worldwide (Deroey, 2023) and explores the EAP practitioner’s role in these.
As improved language proficiency is often (and sometimes mistakenly) viewed as the magic wand that will enable effective teaching and learning through English as an additional language, EAP practitioners are frequently tasked with developing EMI lecturer training. This is a challenging task (cf. Zhou & Delogu, 2026), which is not made any easier by the marginal status we tend to occupy in academia (Ding & Bruce, 2017). However, many EAP practitioners can draw on their linguistic, intercultural and pedagogic skills and knowledge, and as Galloway and Rose (2022, p. 538) argue, we need the ‘cross-fertilisation’ between EMI and EAP to inform EMI policy implementation.
My survey of EMI lecturer training showed that many initiatives prioritize language and communication skills but often also include pedagogical training. Several additionally integrate intercultural and EMI awareness work. The training is mainly delivered by English language professionals through group classes, individual support, and peer learning. Microteaching with feedback, reflection and teaching observations are highly rated activities, while peer learning can empower lecturers, enable contextualisation and facilitate continuous development. A few institutions diversify their support depending on lecturers’ discipline, English proficiency and EMI experience. The multipronged approach that is evident in much EMI lecturer training suggests it could usefully be integrated into a broader continuous professional development programme (Dafouz, 2021), warranting interdisciplinary collaboration in order to enhance teaching in internationalised higher education.

References
Dafouz Milne, E. (2021). Repositioning English-Medium Instruction in a broader international agenda: insights from a survey on teacher professional development. Alicante Journal of English Studies, 34, 15-38. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.14198/raei.2021.34.08
Deroey, K. L. B. (2023). English medium instruction lecturer training programmes: content, delivery, ways forward. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 62(101223), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2023.101223
Ding, A., & Bruce, I. (2017). The English for Academic Purposes practitioner: operating on the edge of academia. Palgrave Macmillan.
Galloway, N., & Rose, H. (2022). Cross-fertilisation, not bifurcation, of EMI and EAP. ELT journal, 76(4), 538-546. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccac033
Zhou, J., & Delogu, P. (2026). Bridging EAP and EMI: Professional development for EAP teachers in Chinese higher education. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 79, 101623. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2025.101623