Professional representations
How do disciplinary lecturers understand the aims, expertise, and responsibilities of teaching through English?
UT2J · DOCTORAL RESEARCH · IN PROGRESS
Teaching through English changes more than the language.
What happens when university lecturers teach their subject through English? This doctoral project explores how they understand their role, make teaching decisions, and adapt their practice in French higher education.
ENGLISH-MEDIUM INSTRUCTION01 / 03
EMIEnglish-medium instruction
FranceHigher education setting
In progressDoctoral research at UT2J
01 / THE RESEARCH
A question about teaching in context.
English-medium instruction (EMI) means teaching academic content through English in a setting where English is not the dominant societal language. For a lecturer, the change can affect more than vocabulary: it can shape explanations, interaction, support for understanding, and the boundaries of professional responsibility.
Pedagogical reasoning
How do lecturers explain choices they make when presenting ideas, managing discussion, or supporting comprehension?
Classroom adaptation
What adjustments to explanation, interaction, language use, and pacing can be observed in EMI teaching?
The project examines these ideas together, without assuming in advance what lecturers should consider part of their role.
02 / CENTRAL QUESTION
From professional understanding to classroom action.
THE STUDY ASKS
How do disciplinary lecturers in French higher education understand and enact their professional role when teaching academic content through English?
The enquiry considers how professional expectations, retrospective accounts, and observed teaching practice relate to one another in their institutional and disciplinary contexts.
03 / PROPOSED APPROACH
Listen. Observe. Reflect together.
The proposed study brings lecturers’ accounts into conversation with classroom episodes. Its design may develop as access and ethical arrangements are finalised.
Talk with lecturers
Interviews explore how lecturers describe their EMI work, students’ needs, and the limits of their teaching role.
Observe teaching
Classroom observation looks closely at explanation, interaction, and support for understanding in situated lessons.
Revisit key moments
Reflective follow-up asks lecturers how they interpret selected teaching episodes and decisions.
Research status: These are planned methods, not completed data collection or findings.
04 / RESEARCH PROGRESS
A project in development.
This space will grow over the doctoral study. Dated notes, talks, publications, and research resources will be added as they are ready to share.
2026 / CURRENT STATUS
Doctoral research underway
Osman Bedel is enrolled in doctoral study in language didactics at Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès. The research focuses on English-medium instruction in French higher education.
This page describes an ongoing project. It does not report study findings.
05 / ABOUT & CONNECTIONS
One research path, several questions.
Osman Bedel’s earlier work explored language in digital communication and collaborative learning in EFL classrooms. This doctoral project continues his interest in how language and teaching meet in practice.