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Teaching in English for Academics: The TEA Project

"The TEA Project": Teaching in English for Academics

The goal of the TEA Project is to support ULB academics and PhD assistants who are teaching in English. It provides provides a flexible, personalised programme focused on language teaching and pedagogical advice.

Why participate in the TEA Project?

An individualised programme with sessions at times that suit you
A collaborative space to reflect, learn and implement evidence-based strategies and perspectives from international research
Improve your written and spoken English and feel more confident
Adapt your pedagogical strategies in order to be a more effective teacher to non-anglophone students

Two types of support

Pedagogical support

Whilst it is important for a teacher to have a certain level of English before starting to teach in the language, research suggests that the teaching methods used are in fact far more important and have a much greater impact on student learning. In short, it isn’t as simple as simply translating a course that exists in French and delivering the same content in the same way.

The TEA Project can guide you towards strategies and techniques that will optimise your teaching. Through seminars and individual sessions, we will look at:

Tools to assess your students’ level of English
Strategies for effective EMI course and lesson structure
Checking of teaching material (slides, handouts, exam questions)
Lesson observations with feedback
Student workshops: in collaboration with you, we can run preparation sessions, writing workshops and exam preparation sessions for your students

Language support

If you are teaching in English (as an academic or PhD assistant), you can almost certainly receive personalised support in English. Other faculty members are welcome to join groups and classes when there is space available.

Support might be in the form of individual sessions, conversation classes or more traditional classes. Depending on your needs, they can focus on oral fluency; reviewing and enhancing your grammar and vocabulary; academic writing skills. Other options include:

Reading and writing tasks focused on specific genres: emails, abstracts, course explanations
Oral preparation of presentations, lessons or exams
Collaborative correction of your abstracts, slides and articles: work together with an English teacher to get a better understanding of your mistakes.
Writing/presentation workshops (for individuals or groups on demand)
Lesson observations: get feedback on your English use in context.
Group classes to prepare an exam certification.

Language and methodology courses 2024/25

Individual meeting to discuss my needs

An individual appointment to discuss how we might be able to help you in terms of your teaching methodology or language needs.

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Cambridge Advanced class

A weekly exam class, beginning in September 2024, preparing you to take the Cambridge Advanced C1 exam. The preparation focuses on reading, writing, listening and speaking skills and aims to upgrade your language and to put a focus on accuracy and fluency. Classes take place on the Solbosch campus on Thursdays from 11am to 12pm.

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Academic English Exchange

Bi-weekly conversation groups, focused on presenting your research, discussing the work of others. With feedback and some writing practice.
Timing to be defined with participants.

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How have ULB teachers used the TEA Project services?

Marie ( PhD assistant): oral language and teaching methodology

Marie is teaching a course on research methods to Masters’ students with very diverse levels of English. She engaged the help of the TEA Project over two academic years to help improve her oral language (all of the bi-weekly sessions were in English) but also to collaboratively design more interactive activities to ensure the students could understand and apply the relevant concepts and that they were secure in the specific vocabulary used on the course.

Elena (Academic): course review

Elena is responsible for a group of courses taught in English and engaged the TEA Project to conduct a review after a few years of implementation. This covered the students’ perspectives, the teachers’ views, comparisons with best practice from research and recommendations for strengthening the structure and delivering of the courses in English.

Jean-Marc (Post-doc researcher): language certification

Jean-Marc teaches a Master’s-level course in English. Although he already had a high level of English, he joined a weekly exam preparation class in order to boost his CV. After a year, he obtained a C2 evaluation and affirms that the rigour of the exam significantly helped him to improve his vocabulary and grammar.

Pierre (Academic): methodology

Pierre teaches several courses in English but was feeling frustrated because the students were very unwilling to speak in English in one of his seminars. He invited the TEA Project trainers to design a training session for the whole teaching team on the course. This served to identify some of the issues that the students had and helped to restructure the seminars, resulting in significantly more interaction and other adaptations to support the students’ learning.

Frequently asked questions

Where do classes take place?: The TEA Project is based on the Solbosch campus but generally the teachers can come to your office if you are based at Solbosch, La Plaine or Flagey.
Can I have lessons online?: No. The lessons and courses are taught in-person.
Do I have to pay?: No. The TEA Project is free for ULB staff.
How many hours of support can I get?: We allocate the number of hours to each participant according to their needs (priority to those with a lower language level) and in terms of the global number of hours we have available.
Do I have to do language and methodology together?: Ideally but not necessarily. We will draw up an individual programme for each participant, according to their needs.
Are the lessons at the same time each week?: The timing and frequency of the individual lessons is arranged between the teacher and participant and we try to be flexible. If you cannot make a session, we ask that you give us as much notice as possible. If you miss too many sessions, we will cancel your enrolment so that we can use the time for other participants.

Updated on November 14, 2024

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