Images from our presence at Eaquals 2016 International Conference
International standards in academic languages teaching is part and parcel of the evolving agenda in European Higher Education. Our participation (Laura Muresan, Carmen Pérez-Llantada, Oana Carciu) at the EAQUALS 2016 International Conference was a modest contribution to work being carried out currently on this issue. As part of a larger ethnographic study, we interviewed multilingual university teachers of different subjects in the field of Bussiness and Management. In these interviews we sought to elicit details on the academic competencies needed to teach, study and pursue research in English.
What emerged was a perceived need for refining academic language competencies. These findings have important implications for staff development and EAP teacher training. Once again, higher education institutions need to put professional development for academic languages teaching on their evolving agenda. This would ensure international standards in academic languages teaching if it is to be opened to a global student population. The scholars’ preoccupation with academic study skills and the diversification of academic language core competencies suggests that the failure to cater for the needs of EAP practitioners may spark a backlash on universities’ internationalization ethos.