Internalising a threshold concept - what languages and channels are called for?

Paper i proceeding, 2017

We offer an example from Chalmers university of technology of how the landscape of English-medium instruction (EMI) might enable or hinder enhanced learning of crucial aspects like a threshold concept (TC) in an educational programme. The study is part of a larger 3-year study focussed on observing EMI-learning contexts to investigate whether or not the hypothesis of incidental language proficiency holds. The main focus of this pilot-level sub-project is to study how talk about specific threshold concepts and the degree of content expertise are reflected in student conversations. Both quantative analysis and qualitative analysis by the disciplinary faculty suggest that the two threshold concepts studied are not mastered as well as the faculty have assumed. The pilot study has resulted in revision of course design and exaplanatory models.