Register for the third Arqus webinar on English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) for the academic year 2025–26

The Arqus Alliance is pleased to announce the third webinar in its English-Medium Instruction (EMI) seminar series for the academic year 2025–26, which is run by Maynooth University. The topic of this year’s series is effective assessment in English-taught programmes and classes.

Titled “Developing strategies for assessment in English-medium instruction”, this webinar will be delivered by Katherine Ackerley and Fiona Dalziel from the University of Padua. It will take place online on Thursday, 12 February 2026, from 12:00 to 13:00 (CET). 

This webinar focuses on some of the challenges that lecturers may face in developing fair and effective modes of assessment in EMI. Drawing on data from a student survey and focus groups with students and lecturers, we will reflect on stakeholders’ differing perceptions of written and oral assessment of content knowledge. It has been seen that in the case of international students, there may be concerns relating not only to language and academic literacy competence, but also to their need to adapt to the local academic culture.

We will discuss lecturers’ assessment strategies in EMI and students’ affective responses, also addressing issues related to collaborative knowledge construction in exams and positive washback. We will then open the floor to participants for a discussion on how enhanced awareness of and familiarity with a wide range of assessment practices can foster student success in English-taught programmes.

About the speakers

Katherine Ackerley is an associate professor of English language and translation at the University of Padua, Italy, where she teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in Modern Languages, as well as on the international degree course in Psychological Science. She was previously vice-director of the University Language Centre, where she was involved in the organisation and delivery of English language support for EMI lecturers and university administrative staff. Her research interests include English-medium instruction, applied corpus linguistics (in particular data-driven learning), English for Specific Purposes and learner corpora.

Fiona Dalziel is an associate professor of English language and translation at the Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies (DiSLL) of the University of Padua, Italy, where she teaches on the BA and MA degree programmes in Modern Languages. From 2013 to 2016 she was head of Padua University Language Centre, where she set up the LEAP (Learning English for Academic Purposes) Project, whose aim was to provide support for lecturers teaching their content courses through English. Her research interests include English-medium instruction (EMI); translanguaging in the language classroom; and the use of drama in language learning, including that of adult migrants.