English Mini-Workshops

Creating an English Teaching Offer for University Staff Members

Abstract

It is repeated over and over again that German universities are becoming, or must become, more international. We are starting to find more and more exciting partnerships within and outside of Europe for carrying out interesting projects, and we are offering more and more degree programmes in English so that foreign students have the opportunity to study with us in Germany. But in order to do this, we have to deal with the "consequences". What if a student has a question for the examination office but can’t ask it in German? Or what if a teacher has to teach their lecture in English because this is now required, even though they have only ever taught in German? It is often assumed that everyone can speak English – but that is not necessarily the case. If our students become more "English", then so must we. And that's not a given. We have to provide the platform for it. Daniel Walker has been working as an English consultant for staff members and lecturers at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences since November 2020. His job is to design an English programme that it is useful and relevant for everyone – be it a professor or a secretary. In this article, Daniel writes about his most popular offer to date, which won the "Gute Sprachlehre an Hochschulen” teaching award in the category "Förderung von Handlungsorientierung und Praxisbezug": The English mini-workshops for university staff.