Module 2 Video 1

English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI)
Video 2.1: Course Design for EMI
Keywords:
Backward designing: A method of designing an educational curriculum by setting goals before choosing
instructional methods and forms of assessment.
Objective: An aim, goal, or end of action
Goal: The end toward which effort is directed.
Stage: One of a series of positions or stations one above the other.
(Definitions are from Merriam-Webster)
Welcome to our video on Course Design for EMI. I’m Dawn Bikowski at Ohio University.
This video will cover how to build and design an EMI course and strategies for teaching in an EMI course.
A useful way of thinking about how to design your EMI course is to consider the concept of backward
design. This video will also discuss how to implement EMI in your lessons.
Backward design, developed by Wiggins & McTighe (2005), has three stages. The first is to identify the
desired results, second—determine acceptable evidence, and third—plan learning experiences &
instruction. Let’s look at each stage in detail and then we will discuss how this process can be applied to
you creating or revising a course for EMI.
The first stage is to Identify the desired results. The important thing here is to establish learning and
teaching priorities. You can ask yourself questions such as “What do you want students to be able to
do?” You can also review curriculum expectations and consider if you want to include goals for students’
English usage or communication skills OR only content goals. At this stage, it is best if you begin to
consider student learning objectives. These objectives should be observable, meaning they can be seen
in some way, and measurable, meaning you can gather data about how much students did or did not
meet course objectives.
After you identify the desired results, you can determine acceptable evidence. That is the second stage.
In other words, you want to decide what evidence is needed to determine if goals and objectives are
met. It is best if you use both formal and informal evidence. Formal evidence refers to grades that are
recorded, such as a test. Informal evidence refers to in-class or out-of-class work that is not necessarily
graded but tells you how well students are doing. For example, if you ask a question during class and no
one can answer it, that would be an example of informal evidence and would tell you that perhaps your
students need extra support in this area. Of course, we don’t expect perfection from students in their
English. We don’t need students to deliver perfectly constructed English sentences. We need them to
show that they understood the content and will remember it for later. If they make mistakes with their
English, that shouldn’t be a problem as long as we can understand them.
The third stage is to plan learning experiences & instruction. Questions to consider include, what facts or
concepts will students need? What processes, procedures, or skills will students need? What activities or
© 2022 by Ohio University. English as a Medium of Instruction MOOC Video 2.1 Course Design for
EMI for the Online Professional English Network (OPEN), sponsored by the U.S. Department of
State with funding provided by the U.S. government and administered by FHI 360. This work is
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licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, except where noted. To view a copy
of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
materials will allow students to develop this knowledge and these skills? What will be the most effective
teaching strategies (e.g., lecture, activities, group work). And you can include a plan for helping students
develop their English in your field.
In stage 1, you want to be able to complete this sentence: “I want my student to be able to …...” Those
are the desired results. It might be that you want your students to be able to discuss, in English, industry
requirements with experts. Or you want your students to be able to write technical reports in English
about a certain topic. Or you want your students to be able to read and discuss main points from
technical reports in English. That is Stage 1.
For stage 2, you want to determine acceptable evidence. You can complete this sentence: “______ will
show me that students accomplished the goals for the course.” These might be tests, group project
reports or presentations, or individual reports or presentations.
After you decide what evidence you need to determine if students have met course learning objectives,
you can decide what type of support or materials or experiences work best to help them. This is stage 3,
or Plan learning experiences and instruction. For this stage, you can consider: In order to help students
to this thing, such as write a report in English, I need to…. . And here, you decide what you should do to
help students accomplish Stage 2. You might give them certain lectures, or certain project assignments,
or have them interview experts in the field. But the point is that you are thinking about the end goal—
what do students need to be able to do, and what information or experiences do they need in order to
help them meet those goals?
There are different models for how you could conduct an EMI class session. In one, you might first do a
language mini-lesson and a content lesson. That means that you can start with key vocabulary to review,
which they could have studied for homework. If you can make this first warm-up activity interactive,
that would be best. In this model, you can then do a mini lecture on the content area, including the key
vocabulary students should know, and even writing the words on the board as necessary. And then you
could do an activity that asks students to show how they’ve learned the content, such as a quiz or a
group discussion or project. In the other model, you start immediately with the content, such as a mini-
lecture, and when you need to, you stop in order to explain key vocabulary or ideas. You can see with
either method, you acknowledge that students are non-native English speakers and will need extra
support. It’s just a matter of when you provide that support. That will depend on the course you are
teaching and the students that you have.
That concludes our video about different models for how you can conduct your EMI class sessions. You
might also have some other things that you’ve tried or talked to some of your colleagues about. Be sure
to share ideas with others on ways that you can make your EMI class work.
Reference1
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.
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(This content is copyrighted and cannot be adapted in any way or distributed after the end of this course. It is not Public Domain or Creative
Commons-licensed, and therefore not for public use.)

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English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI)

Video 2.1: Course Design for EMI

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