Jaana Suviniitty
Department of Forest Products Technology,
Aalto University School of Science and Technology, Finland jaana.suviniitty@tkk.fi
Background
Globalization is one of the key strategies at universities everywhere. Globalization usually means English Medium Instruction (EMI) which may result in major changes for both the lecturers and the students. When the International Master’s Program in the Department of Forest Products Technology at Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University School of Science and Technology) was established, it was deemed necessary to have support for the transition into the EMI program. Despite the inter-nationality of Forest Based Industries, the field had been seen very much as the most Finnish field there is and most students were looking forward to long careers within a strong, traditional industry in Finland. The changes in the industry, which have closed many mills in Finland, have created the need for a linguistically and multiculturally prepared Masters of Science (Tech.) who may start their careers almost anywhere in the world.
Thus the International Master’s Program in the Department of Forest Products Technology was launched not a moment too early. This study reviews the students’
perception of the lectures and provides and overview of the aspects which influence comprehension, most likely not only during EMI.
Support or a Pest
The beginning of providing support for the lecturers appeared contrary to support. Since I, as the English expert, was asked to evaluate the lecturers’ English, I saw no other option than to take a video camera in the lecture rooms and video the lectures while making field notes. After the videoed lectures, students were asked to provide feedback on them through a paper-based questionnaire. Despite the anxiety I am sure my camera and I caused the lecturers and even the students, I was welcomed in the lecture halls and students diligently filled out my forms. The research material consists of 22 videoed lectures and 212 feedback questionnaires. The questionnaires were used to classify the lectures into those which students perceived as easier to comprehend and those which students perceived not as easy to comprehend. As the group size in the lectures was quite small, most of them were held in what can be called as conversational style: the lecturer had prepared visual aids, most often Power Point slides, and spoke freely using the slides as the organizational aid during the lecture. To analyze the lectures more thoroughly, three well-comprehended and three less-comprehended lectures were transcribed. For the
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transcription, those lectures with less than eight students were excluded, since the student feedback was so limited. Within a week after having attended the lecture, I provided my feedback to the lecturer. This assessment was based on the guidelines provided in The Phonology of English as an International Language [1]. Though this assessment was given before the student evaluation was analyzed, it was pleasant to no-tice after the analysis of the student questionnaire responses that in most of the cases students agreed with the assessment that had been provided to the lecturers.
Interaction, Interaction, Interaction
When considering a start-up of a sales office or a store, there is a saying that the three most important aspects of it are location, location, location. Based on the present study, the three most important aspects of lecturing are interaction, interaction, interaction.
Even in larger groups, the lecturer can select such method that the audience is activated.
When the three well-comprehended lectures were analyzed, the amount of interactive features, namely questions, directives, and repetition was seen as one of the aspects which increases their comprehensibility [2].
English as a Lingua Franca
In many European countries, especially in the academic world, English is seen as the big, bad wolf which devours all other languages. Technical fields do not have such an emotional approach to the choice of language: English is seen as one of the tools which is used to convey a message, almost parallel to Power Point slides. Within the industry, it would be impossible to operate without a knowledge of English and many times it is actually preferred that the English is ”international”, something that is spoken by the non-native speakers [3]. Lingua franca situations are those where speakers of other languages use English to communicate when they do not share another common language [4]. Within linguistics, this field has been gaining recognition for the past decades and research on the features of ELF is conducted increasingly [5].
Good Enough English
The Department of Forest Products Technology was prepared for the changes in the industry and their EMI has shown that their International Master’s Program reaches similar course results as the previous program held in Finnish. Student feedback indicates that lecturers’ English is valuated as good enough, in many cases students’ self-evaluated of their own English is lower than the level they evaluate their lecturers’
English. Communicative aspect of lectures is to be seen as important and should be stressed. When the lecture contains interactive features, such as questions, directives, and repetition, lecture comprehension was high even when lecturer’s level of English was evaluated somewhat low.
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[1] Jenkins, J. 2000. The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[5] Mauranen, A. 2006. Rhetorically speaking: Repetition and repair in making a point. In Bamford, J.
and Bondi, M. (eds) Managing interaction in professional discourse: intercultural and interdiscoursal perspectives. Rome: Officina Edizioni.
[2] McCarthy, M. 1998. Spoken language & applied linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3] Seidlehofer, B. 2003. A Concept of International English and Related Issues: From “Real English” to
“Realistic English”. Strasbourg: council of Europe, Language Policy Division.
[4] Seidlehofer. B. 2001. “Closing a Conceptual Gap: The Case for a Description of English as a Lingua Franca.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics. Vol 11, No 2, 133 –158.
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Practice paper