Abstract:

Seminars are becoming a more popular practice in Higher Education which provides students a more applied view about the contents dealt in the subject and from the experience of professional experts in the area. In this context, our study aims to respond how lectures and students face the challenge of implementing English seminars in a traditional background classroom and from the experience. Lecturers’ goals and concerns as well as student’s motivation are explored in this study considering that there is ongoing a transitional process towards multilingualism in the classroom. The results obtained from a survey show that the seminars contribute to promote critical thinking and interaction through opened questions and debates conducted afterwards. Moreover, students improve their language skills through informal networking which approach them to the real work environment. But a reluctance to change is identified and further action is necessary to address the Spanish education model to the standards set by the European Higher Educational Area (EHEA).

Keywords:

Experiences in Undergraduate education, Education practice trends and issues, Life-long learning education.