Lecturers Perceptions of Teaching English - Research Paper Example

About 85% of the world’s film market is in English, while 90% of published research articles in the field of such as linguistics are written in English. This educational, economic, scientific and technical globalization has greatly speeded up the growth in the use of the English language.” (Wu & Cao, 2007: 92).In higher education, the pressure to teach in English stems from the desire to participate in exchange programs as well as other types of transnational cooperation involving students and faculty.

European higher education has addressed the above concerns, making English the dominant language for academic programs (Graddol 1997, 2006). An example of this is the Aalto University in Finland, which is offering all masters programs in English. Thus, the job requirements of the teaching faculty at the master’s level entail being able to provide high-quality education whereby the language of instruction is English. Because quality assessment and quality control are regarded as important at Aalto University, a pilot mentoring program was established as a means to provide support to faculty who have volunteered to teach in English.

The mentoring program includes assessing the English language skills of those participating in it. Those who pass the assessment will be given a certificate for teaching in English that will be tied to the tenure track system.However, Aalto University, as with other universities in Europe and other countries where English is a foreign language, has a problem, in that the majority of university lecturers and students have no special relationship with the English language, as they have not lived extensively in an English-speaking country.

For this reason, English proficiency levels may vary greatly among both students and faculty. ELF lecturers work through English in instructional situations – they are users of English, not learners of English, using English as a tool to get their work done.