Events

Scholarship Exchange Webinar

Scholarship Exchange Webinar
Date: Wednesday 17 December 2025 12:00 - 13:00  Add this event to your calendar
Location:Online (see link below)

Speaker 1: Alan Allman, Lecturer in Language for Science and Engineering Transnational Education (SEMS)

Title: Investigating Disciplinary Literacy Needs at QMES

Abstract: This study examines the disciplinary literacy demands of two Chemistry undergraduate modules delivered through English-medium instruction (EMI) at Queen Mary Engineering School (QMES) in Xi'an, China. Despite the rapid expansion of EMI in transnational education (TNE), there remains limited empirical evidence specifying the disciplinary language and literacy practices students require to engage effectively with subject content.

The research draws on data from lecturer interviews, classroom observations, and student questionnaires to identify both target and present disciplinary literacy demands. The analysis reveals challenges that extend beyond general English proficiency, including the use of discipline-specific terminology, the interpretation of multimodal representations such as graphs, tables, and chemical structures, and the continued reliance on first-language mediation.

Making disciplinary literacy demands explicit through systematic needs analysis provides a practical foundation for collaboration between language and content specialists. The study concludes by offering pedagogical recommendations for integrating discipline-specific academic language support into existing curricula, with implications for EMI practice in JEI and TNE contexts.

People:Alan ALLMAN
Research Centre:Research in Engineering and Materials Education