Abstract:

The global job market needs a global world of research as well as a global educational environment. The Bologna Process started the "hunt" for building an international environment in higher education across the world. States, universities, faculties, academic departments as well as stakeholders of education process themselves are pushed to contribute to the internationalisation process. Some states have adopted a strategy for this internationalisation process of higher education, however, in some countries the strategy is missing and the initiative is left to the education stakeholders.

Slovakia is a country that has not adopted the strategy for the process of higher education internationalisation yet. Despite the gradual increase in the number of students going abroad to study within various mobility programs, the process of internationalisation of the curriculum is lagging behind, although particularly in the non-English speaking countries, the establishing of an international environment is mainly about internationalisation of the curriculum.

Our study provides the results of the research conducted at the Slovak University of Technology, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology (STU MTF) focused on the students’ readiness for the English Education Environment (EEE). Establishing the active EEE might then trigger a higher interest of foreign students to study at the STU Faculty.

Bachelor students (n=252) participated in the questionnaire to provide their attitudes and opinions on their readiness to study disciplinary courses in English from various perspectives. The students were also tested (standard Oxford Language Placement Test) to elicit their level of English with the aim to investigate potential correlations between the data gained from the questionnaire and the results from their language test. As far as the English Education Environment is concerned, most of the participants of the study preferred to be taught in English partially.

This paper illustrates the students’ preferences to the courses taught in English (form, intensity, frequency etc.), their readiness to be a part of the EEE. Some projects focused on establishing the EEE to enhance the Internationalisation of Home (IoH) are presented and finally some recommendations for further research in the field are proposed.

IoH requires the readiness and willingness of the main stakeholders (teachers and students) and also of non-academic supportive staff. Finding out the real state is an essential step before establishing the EEE in higher education institutions. The second step is to find a suitable and effective approach to the EEE and the way of cooperation across disciplines.

Keywords:

Internationalisation of Home, English Education Environment, students readiness, cooperation.