Page 12 - ELG1601 Feb Issue 433

ELmiddle east supplement
Page 12 February 2016

Middle Eastern unis top THE

Continued from page 9 entering higher education, many necessarily an indicator of the
have the words ‘American Univer- of the US’s universities have less diversity of the student body
sity of’ in their names, the US itself need to recruit foreign students either. Their faculties and student
has a huge domestic market for and staff. A comment on the intakes may not even be all that
student recruitment. Over 68 per THE’s world’s most international English-medium. The universi-
cent of US high school graduates university rankings webpage ties of Qatar, the UAE and Saudi
went on to ‘college’ as of late 2014, noted that ‘the proportion of Arabia are likely to include many
according to the Federal Bureau international students in the US nationals of other Arab countries,
of Labor Statistics, although the commonly reflects inability to many of them being there for
Bureau did note a very high drop- recruit PhD students within the education in Arabic. The Aus-
out rate, and the New York Times US, where other training paths or trian and Swiss entries in the table
had earlier that year noted that the careers might be more attractive’. (most of the Swiss high-fliers are
proportion of Americans in higher The ‘international-to-domestic in the German-speaking cantons)
education had been falling slightly staff’ and ‘international-to- are probably working with a lot
since 2009. domestic student’ ratios of those of students and staff in German,
With so many of its nationals that top the rankings table aren’t probably from Germany. n

Courtesy Baleap

GLOBAL AMBITION Diane Schmitt says Baleap aims to be a forum for EAP professionals worldwide

A community committed

to sharing best practice

Diane Schmitt, lecturer in EFL at Nottingham Trent
and Baleap chair, explains what the group is all about

s a long-standing mem- English-speaking countries lio does not replace academic
ber of Baleap and the offering courses and degrees qualifications, it aims to support
Acurrent chair of the through EMI, this means we are already practising teachers in
organisation, I have become seeing a shortage of teachers with their development as EAP prac-
accustomed to explaining who appropriate EAP experience or titioners through its link to the
we represent and what we do. qualifications. Most practising Baleap Competency Framework
A good starting point is always EAP teachers learn on the job for Teachers of English for Aca-
the pronunciation of our organi- and many struggle to develop demic Purposes. The scheme
sation’s name – it is easy to the relevant know-how to pro- offers three levels of fellowship
remember if you picture a sheep vide targeted academic English status for teachers at various
jumping, we are baa – leap. language instruction to students stages of their careers.
Historically, the letters stood either preparing for, or already Quality assurance of EAP
for the British Association of engaged in, degree-level study. programmes is another key area
Lecturers in English for Aca- Baleap has been a lifeline for of Baleap activity. The Baleap
demic Purposes. However, our many teachers because it offers Accreditation Scheme is a peer
decision to become a registered a community where they can review quality assurance and qual-
charity in 2010 corresponded come together to develop and ity enhancement scheme designed
with the exponential growth in share good practice in EAP pro- to establish and sustain the stand-
the delivery of English-medium gramme design and delivery, ard required of specialist courses
instruction (EMI) worldwide and materials development, class- in English for academic purposes.
growing interest in our activities room teaching, assessment and The label ‘Baleap-accredited’ is
from colleagues in Europe, Asia, increasingly EAP teacher educa- a recognised symbol for students
North America and Oceania. tion and research. We exchange and their sponsors looking for
Thus, we decided that it no longer teaching ideas and research find- high-quality EAP programmes
made sense to limit our focus ings via a lively email discussion and for teachers looking for work
only to EAP provision and EAP forum, one-day seminars held on such programmes.
practitioners working in Britain. three or four times a year and our Accreditation focuses on EAP
Now our strapline demonstrates biannual conference. course design and teaching and
our aim to be a forum for EAP To encourage research in EAP, learning with specific refer-
professionals worldwide. we run a research training series ence to the institutional context,
What does Baleap do? Our and offer an annual award for the course management, course
main area of activity is teacher best MA dissertation on an EAP design, learning and teaching
development. Although the topic. We also work closely with and assessment, evaluation and
number of people learning Eng- the Journal of English for Aca- progression. Accreditation is
lish worldwide is huge, until demic Purposes, which is the open to institutions worldwide.
relatively recently teaching EAP flagship journal in our area. Baleap members are pas-
was a small niche area in the In 2014 we launched the sionate about EAP and about
larger field of EFL. As a result, Teaching English for Academic students studying through Eng-
EAP received little attention in Purposes Portfolio, which is an lish as a second language. If you
teacher education courses. individual practitioner profes- share our passion or advise stu-
According to the OECD, sional accreditation scheme. The dents aiming to study in an EMI
the number of students study- aim of the scheme is to enhance environment, please go to www.
ing internationally has doubled the quality of the student aca- baleap.org to find out more. n
since 2000, with over 39 per cent demic experience through
choosing to study in the major facilitating the education, The next Baleap conference
English-speaking countries. training, scholarship and pro- will be at the University
Coupled with the increasing fessional development of those of Bristol 7–9 April 2017.
number of universities in non- in the sector. While the portfo- See http://baleap2017.org