Abstract:

This study is part of a wider research on the fast-moving worldwide shift from English taught as a foreign language (EFL) to English as the medium of instruction (EMI) for academic subjects, thus increasing its use in universities. This is a phenomenon with profound implications for the education of students and policy decisions. EMI is expanding in Romanian higher education, backed up by both integrative and instrumental reasons. When considering the subject matter of language teaching, we ask ourselves what exactly are we teaching? As well as working with the language systems (which we can think of in terms of what we “know”, including phonology, lexis, grammar, function or discourse), we also pay attention to what we “do” with the language. These are the language skills, which include the traditionally important four macro-skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing. This paper addresses the importance of skills work. Courses need to be planned to give students opportunities to practise and improve their language skills. The four main “macro” skills could be analysed down to smaller “micro” skills by defining more precisely what exactly is being done, how is being done, the genre of material and so on. In principle, the objective of comprehension practice is that students should learn to function successfully in different types of real-life communication situations.

Keywords:

English medium instruction (EMI), higher education, civil engineering, language skills, macro and micro skills.