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This chapter aims to provide an overview of English-medium instruction (EMI) in Italian higher education.

This paper examines EMI students' linguistic background, histories, experiences and attitudes. A questionnaire was administered to 357 students from the departments of medicine, biology, economics, humanities and engineering of a Northern Italian university. Data analysis involved both qualitative and quantitative elements. The results reveal an overall positive attitude toward English and the EMI learning experience, but they also point to some perceived shortcomings regarding their linguistic abilities.

Questions play a fundamental role in the interaction between students and teachers. In English-medium instruction (EMI) classes, the strategic use of questions can strongly influence not only the learning process regarding content, but also the active participation of students, and consequently the development of their interaction skills, thereby allowing them to deploy higher-order thinking skills, which are particularly important in higher education. Online teaching, which has come to the forefront during the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has made lecturer–student interaction even more challenging. The present paper seeks to frame questions as a potential source of interaction in EMI and to qualitatively compare questions produced by lecturers in face-to-face and online lectures. First, it will categorize questions as referential, display, or procedural, looking into their implications and potential in terms of both language and content processing and learning. It will then illustrate examples of the use of questions in four EMI lectures, two face-to-face lectures and two online, from four different disciplines, which were transcribed, analysed and compared. Results reveal differences in the distribution of questions across the two learning methods and shed light on the interactional style used in traditional and online EMI lectures

This study aims at determining the effectiveness of the Bilingual Education Italy (BEI) project as opposed to monolingual programmes in primary education in Italy, a country with low exposure to English as a foreign language. The BEI project originated from a memorandum of understanding between the Directorate-General for Educational Systems and School Autonomy of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry for Universities and Research, and the British Council. The research questions focus on the difference in the performance in English, oral mathematics and oral Italian between BEI and non-BEI students. To answer them, a statistical analysis of the English language competence state test in two primary schools involved in the BEI project was carried out. A descriptive analysis of the scores obtained by BEI and non-BEI students was performed, followed by the analysis of the correlation between the scores in English, Italian and mathemat- ics, and a linear regression considering all the relevant variables. The results point to an advantage of BEI students over non-BEI ones.

This article focuses on input in online EMI during the COVID-19 pandemic and identifies and describes its salient features. It presents results from a study carried out in Northern Italian universities. The research uses mixed methods to investigate the topic, triangulating data from questionnaires sent out to lecturers, recordings of video-lectures, and interviews with lecturers. The interviews use the technique of video-stimulated recall, or retrospective interview, in which respondents verbalise their thoughts about a task after carrying it out (Dornyei, 2007: 148). In this case, participants watched the recordings of their own lectures and were asked to comment on their thought processes regarding input. The lectures were of the synchronous video conferencing lecture (SVL) variety, in which instruction occurs in real time and there is interaction between teachers and students (Martin, Ahlgrim-Delzell & Budhrani’s, 2017: 3). Results gave insight into features of EMI online input and indicated discrepancies between what the lecturers think and what they do in class. The study has implications for online EMI teaching well beyond the pandemic, given that blended learning models are increasingly adopted in higher education and EMI lecturers are concerned with how to make their lecturing more effective.

This article takes its cue from the conceptual framework of mediation (sociocultural theory) and mode continuum (systemic functional linguistics) to investigate the stu dent-teacher interaction and how this interaction serves the learner’s language and the co-constructing of knowledge. Through an analysis of observations, transcriptions, and materials, the study also examines the features of multimodality (e.g., student-written language, student-spoken language, and the teacher’s language and visuals) in the fea tured lessons.

Purpose: This paper describes a study carried out within an ICLHE training programme in a Northern Italian university. The paper discusses the way an increased awareness of multimodal resources and the ability to deploy them effectively during lectures could offset language deficits of lecturers and enhance overall communicative competence and pedagogy. Design/methodology/approach: Eight mini-lectures given during a microteaching session undertaken as part of a training module were video recorded for analysis. Lectures are a form of multimodal discourse and multimodal analysis was chosen for an examination of spoken language with a particular focus on pronunciation, audiovisual presentations and non-verbal communication, as well as any other didactic material or strategies used by the participants. The video recordings were chosen on the basis of observations and feedback from the trainers with the aim of investigating ICLHE competence. Findings and originality: There have been few studies on pronunciation and ICLHE and they tend to be oriented towards investigating students’ pronunciation gains in English-medium Instruction (EMI). The findings of this study suggest that by enhancing multimodal competence and focusing on pronunciation, lecturers can improve their overall communicative competence. Value: The results of this study provide some indications of how educational developers can help lecturers increase their awareness of the communicative potential of multi-semiotic modes to support their pronunciation and improve the clarity of their lectures.

The aim of this chapter is to investigate the input of teachers in the EMI field. Input is understood here as the prime mover of the teaching-learning activity. Input, ontologically speaking, entails a real didactic impact, as it can be adapted and fine-tuned by teachers to make it understandable and accessible to students; moreover the input construct, which emerged from the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), can be a key to interpreting EMI teaching

This volume focuses on input in English-medium Instruction.

This chapter considers CLIL in relation to Italian early childhood education and care, focusing specifically on the 3–6 years age group and the “scuola dell’infanzia” or pre-primary school. It begins by providing an outline of the municipal tradition of ECEC in Italy and identifying its salient features, before considering these features in relation to the theoretical underpinnings and practices associated with CLIL. Although a brief perusal of Italian ECEC centres and school websites reveals that early childhood educators are engaged with questions of multilingualism and second language education for very young children, and that several CLIL projects have been implemented at pre-primary level and self-documented, there are few formal accounts of CLIL in Italian ECEC settings. This chapter considers Italian legislation relating to CLIL, ECEC teacher education and CLIL and how CLIL at pre-primary level overlaps with other types of early language learning. It also provides examples of CLIL implementation in Italian ECEC as a starting point for educators and school communities that are considering adopting this approach.

This paper presents a teacher training experience for bilingual education (BE) using drama activities and techniques within a university degree in primary education. Many studies have underlined the similarities between teachers and actors, seeing teachers as performers, especially in regard to the correct and effective use of the voice, body language, and involvement of the audience. The type of training described here has a twofold objective: to make trainee-teachers participate as learners of drama techniques, and to help them use these techniques with their pupils. This paper will investigate studies on teacher training and BE and on BE and drama, describe the Italian context, and show the activities carried out in the teacher training. It will also analyze the script of a science play in English from a lexical point of view and show one of the lesson plans produced by the trainees. This study is theoretical-descriptive and has no research-based aims.

The use of synthetic phonics to teach literacy in Anglophone contexts is ever present in public discourse about primary education, and is sometimes controversial. Less is known about its use(s) in EFL and bilingual education contexts. This paper shares data from a small study of teachers in Italian primary schools where synthetic phonics has been used in a bilingual programme for over five years. A questionnaire was sent to 15 teachers who teach in state bilingual primary schools in the Lombardy region in Northern Italy. The schools are part of the Bilingual Education in Italy (BEI) project. The questionnaire asked about the teachers’ perceptions of synthetic phonics before and after using it. In particular, it asked about the impact of using synthetic phonics on both students’ and teachers’ pronunciation. Like studies in China and Spain, research in this project reveals that teachers using synthetic phonics in EFL contexts find it a useful tool not just for teaching literacy, but for helping raise children’s FL phonological awareness and focus on their own pronunciation.

Partly because of the Bologna Declaration, the so-called English-Medium Instruction (EMI) courses in universities have undergone a strong surge in the last 15 years. This initial phase of growth in EMI has had an impact on LSP/ESP (Language/English for Specific Purposes) courses, which have in some cases suffered a consequent decline. This article seeks to highlight the potential of ESP to prepare students in EMI communication, support academic disciplinary skills, develop transversal skills, and foster intercultural communication. The study analyses anESP-focused curricular design that aims to help students develop English-language communicative effectiveness for a domain-specific context: social and human services. The various integrative practices inherent in ESP instruction call attention to its potential as a harmonizing and empowering force for content- and language-integrated learning when used alongside EMI