2017 Faculty Development Program on English as a Medium of Instruction

To address the needs of faculty members in teaching international courses, the university offers various faculty development (FD) programs supported by SGU fund throughout the year.

On 19-22 September 2017, a basic course on English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) was held at Hakozaki campus with 18 participants, while an intermediate EMI course was held on 26-27 September 2017 at Ito campus with 9 participants.

Through the UQ-KU¹ project collaboration, the basic course entitled “English Medium Instruction (EMI) & Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Professional Development Program” was delivered for four days by John Moran of ICTE², University of Queensland. Attended by various faculty members, Professor Syo Matsumura (Coordinator of the UQ-KU project at Kyushu University) delivered the welcome remarks at the opening of the program. Some of the sessions covered were on giving effective lectures, signposting, using visuals and active learning. The feedback from the participants was very positive. Many of them were eager to apply what they have learned to their own classes. Also, some participants found that some techniques and classroom activities could also be useful in classes taught in Japanese. At the end of the seminar, Vice President Koichiro Watanabe gave the closing remarks and awarded the certificates to the participants.

The two-day intermediate course entitled “English Medium Instruction: An introduction to aspects of language and methodology for university lecturers” was delivered by Rupert Herington, Deputy Director for the Language Center of the University of Leeds. On the first day, Vice President Koichiro Watanabe welcomed the participants and introduced the seminar speaker. With the vast experience of the speaker, some of the topics covered were English language use in the lecture theatre/classroom, small group teaching skills, technology & autonomous learning, and micro teaching practice. At the conclusion of the seminar, certificates were given to the participants and Vice President Yuji Soejima closed the program with a warm thanks to the speaker and attendees.  The results of the questionnaire showed that participants were satisfied with the contents of the seminar.  As a post-seminar component, the participants may send a video record of their lecture delivered in English to the trainer, and the trainer would provide a detailed feedback about their performance with recommendations for further professional development.

¹ UQ-KU project is a project of Kyushu University (KU) in collaboration with the University of Queensland (UQ).
² ICTE: Institute of Continuing & TESOL Education