University of Passau: global.trex

Teaching in English – a language course+

CLIL (content and language integrated learning) as an approach to practical linguistic preparation for international work placements in teacher training

Original concept and purpose

The ‘Teaching in English’ language course+ is aimed at all student teachers and interested parties wishing to grapple with technical English in the educational sciences sector. In particular, it offers the ideal preparation for a school internship and for international studies specific to the teaching profession. Furthermore, it enables all student teachers to intensify their international expertise and thus bolsters efforts relating to Internalisation at Home.

Lehramtsstudierende beim Sprachkurs

The original concept for this course is based on considerations that a low-threshold teacher training equivalent should be developed similar to the discipline-specific language training (FFA) that has been successfully established at the University of Passau in domains such as law, economics and business administration, and the cultural industries. In particular for the target group of student teachers who did not select a foreign language within their subject combination and who – despite having a good general command of English – exhibit a need for support with technical language expertise; in particular for those student teachers who additionally cannot integrate language training lasting several semesters into their syllabus without extension of the study period.

Lisa Narbe, global.trex Passau Stipendiatin, Lehramtsstudentin und Kursteilnehmerin

[...] I can in general highly recommend this course to prospective teachers who want to teach abroad, but also to every other teacher.

Lisa Narbe, global.trex Passau scholarship holder, trainee teacher and course participant

The need for intercultural experience

The Bavarian Teacher Training Law does not stipulate an obligatory stay abroad as part of teacher training, although – especially in the real context of @home classes that are becoming ever more international and global – intercultural experiences would be more necessary than ever to prepare prospective teachers for this heterogeneous reality. Teaching in a culturally and linguistically sensitive manner requires practical preparation that enables recognition of our intrinsic foreignness and involves preparedness to leave our individual comfort zone. While international work placements for student teachers involved in foreign language teaching are easier to implement given their previous linguistic education, there is a desideratum in the specialist linguistic preparation of student teachers in other subjects. Even if students often have a high command of English, they lack the conceptual foreign language basis from the perspective of educational science.

Course contents and methodology

This gap is closed by Teaching in English. There are 15 action-oriented sessions in which the participants are prepared for their stay abroad, school routines, teaching practice and reflection, and all this in a setting related to foreign language teaching. The course learning objectives include gaining an initial insight into the educational and school environment in other countries, teaching with greater self-assurance in an international context and becoming familiar with current trends in international education and educational concepts to facilitate an educational sciences discourse with peers on a global scale. Practical teaching/learning scenarios based on theoretical inputs are developed, composed and jointly discussed. Larger and smaller teaching modules are rehearsed and considered from a metaperspective. They reverse roles to practice and thus visualise potential forms of instruction versus construction.

Dr. Hans-Stefan Fuchs, Leiter des Praktikumsamtes für Grund- und Mittelschulen an der Universität Passau

I can still well remember my studies at the time when I was preparing for an extended stay abroad. All the hurdles that had to be overcome and all the additional effort that had to be expended to finally achieve the objective. I would love to have had a course like this back then to make everything so much easier. [...]

Dr Hans-Stefan Fuchs, head of the Trainee Office for Primary and Secondary Schools at the University of Passau

Implementation and evaluation

The language course+ has been offered as a pilot project in a digital format since 2020. The evaluation results firstly indicate that the participants would like to see the course included as a fixed component in the teacher training curriculum. The inhibitions among participants about completing a stay abroad could also be reduced and the motivation to do so could be substantially increased.

Klassenzimmer mit Ausarbeitungen an der Wand.

This empowerment effect became apparent through student surveys at the start and conclusion of course participation and/or especially in the case of returnees after their stay abroad. Course participation thus significantly simplified integration into the local school environment and was designed from the outset for slick processes. This is confirmed by positive feedback from our partner universities.

Professorin Dr. Christina Hansen, Vizepräsidentin für Internationales und Diversity

[...] In terms of preparation for an international semester or an internship abroad, this is one of the best formats that we can currently offer at the University of Passau to impart professionalism and internationalisation to our students.

Professor Christina Hansen, Vice President for International Affairs and Diversity, Head of Internationalisation at the Centre for Teacher Education and Teaching Methodology

Networking and exchange

Exchange and networking meetings with our partner universities

Annual face-to-face meetings (coordination visits or guest lectureships) among other events were arranged with our international partner universities Zhejiang International Studies University (China), University of Education Winneba (Ghana), Gordon College of Education (Israel), Universidad de Ciencias Pedagógicas Enrique José Varona (Cuba), Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and Muskingum University (USA) and were augmented by digital workshops and a virtual autumn school.

Bavaria-wide cooperation

Firmly established cooperation now exists among the Bavarian Lehramt.International projects at the Universities of Bamberg, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Passau and Würzburg, with six-monthly meetings and cooperation events. The aim of these meetings is to agree and consult on the implementation of common internationalisation strategies in Bavarian teacher education. The network of Bavarian Lehramt.International projects has been organising a series of semestral online events for student teachers, lecturers and teaching staff at their respective home universities and their international partner higher education institutions since winter semester 2023/24 (topic in summer semester 2024: ‘Lunch talk: schools and teaching around the globe’).

National networking

The global.trex project participates in the monthly round of digital discussions with 14 Lehramt.International projects covering aspects of project management and good practice examples. These were initiated in 2021 and subsequently coordinated by the LiMa project coordination team.

Further information and contacts

Contacts

Ophelia Sabine Blake
Project coordinator / Teaching in English lecturer
sabine-ophelia.blake@uni-passau.de
Tel.: +49 (0)851/509-2645

Matthias Fuchs
Project owner
Manager at the Centre for Teacher Training and Teaching Methodology (ZLF)
Manager of the Course Coordination Department
matthias.fuchs@uni-passau.de
Tel.: +49 (0)851/509-2969