The role of the first language in English Medium Instruction

Eithne Gallagher has over 20 years’ experience of teaching in international schools and has twice been chair of the European Council of International Schools ESL & Mother-tongue Committee. She is author of Equal Rights to the Curriculum: Many Languages, One Message (2008), and The Glitterlings (2015), a story-based Early Years programme for international schools and pre-schools. She provides support and consultancy for schools wishing to implement inclusive ESL and mother-tongue policies.

Patsy M. Lightbown is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Concordia University in Montreal. She is co-author of the award-winning book How Languages are Learned (4th edition, 2013) and co-editor of the Oxford Key Concepts for the Language Classroom series. Her book Focus on Content- Based Language Teaching (2014) is the first in the series. Her research has focused on the learning and teaching of additional languages in primary and secondary school classrooms, in contexts of ESL, EFL, and bilingual education, including dual immersion. Her current projects include pro bono consulting with educators in francophone West Africa.

David Marsh is Director of Innovation & Outreach at EduCluster Finland, University of Jyväskylä Group. He has been instrumental in developing processes for improving language learning and bilingual education in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. He co-launched Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) under the auspices of the European Commission in the 1990s. He is author of The CLIL Trajectory (2013) and co-author of Uncovering CLIL (2008), Content and Language Integrated Learning (2010), and Teaching through English in Higher Education (2017).

Victoria A. Murphy is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Deputy Director of the Department of Education, University of Oxford. She convenes the Applied Linguistics research group, as well as the R.E.A.L. (Research in English as an Additional Language) group. Victoria’s research lies mainly within the field of child second and foreign language learning, vocabulary, and literacy development. She is the author of Second Language Learning in the Early School Years (2014) in the Oxford Applied Linguistics series and the lead editor of Early Childhood Education in English for Speakers of Other Languages (2016).

Nina Spada is Professor Emerita in the Language and Literacies Education program at the University of Toronto. She is co-author of the award-winning book How Languages are Learned (4th edition, 2013) and co-editor of the Oxford Key Concepts for the Language Classroom series. As a teacher educator and research consultant, she has contributed to large-scale international projects related to the teaching and learning of second and foreign languages, including those sponsored by the European Commission and the World Bank.

Hamish Chalmers is Departmental Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Oxford. He is also co-vice chair of UK’s National Association for Language Development in the Curriculum (NALDIC). He has extensive experience of teaching students for whom English is an additional language (EAL), including a number of years as Director of EAL at a large international school in Bangkok. His main research interest concerns the incorporation of L1-mediated teaching and learning strategies into mainstream education in linguistically diverse schools.