Dr. Jacob Rieker
Dr. Meredith Doran
2. Affiliation
Department of Applied Linguistics, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
3. Short Bio (50-100 words)
Dr. Jacob Rieker is an Assistant Research Professor and Researcher in English for Specific Purposes and English as a Medium of Instruction in the Department of Applied Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University, USA. His research engages Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory primarily in the contexts of English as a Medium of instruction and second-language teacher education to both document and promote faculty and teacher development. His publications have appeared in venues including Journal of English-Medium Instruction, Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, Second Language Teacher Education, TESL-EJ, and Advances in Health Sciences Education.
Dr. Meredith Doran is an Associate Teaching Professor of Applied Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University, USA and Director of English for Professional Purposes Intercultural Center (EPPIC). She has extensive experience as a second language educator, program administrator, and sociolinguist. Her research interests include faculty development in English-Medium Instruction, language teacher education, English for Specific Purposes, and inclusive communication in multilingual settings. Her scholarly publications have appeared in venues including Journal of English-Medium Instruction, Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, The Modern Language Journal, Teaching and Teacher Education, and Contemporary French & Francophone Studies as well as in several edited books.
4. Abstract (150-200 words)
Professional development for EMI faculty developers: A collaborative case study of EMI Advisor conceptual development
While substantial resources support EMI faculty development globally, the professional development of EMI faculty developers themselves remains largely overlooked. EMI faculty developers often work in isolation, lacking systematic preparation and shared frameworks for effective practice. Addressing this critical issue, this collaborative case study examines the design, implementation, and impact of a professional development intervention (PDI) offered for Fulbright Taiwan's EMI Advisors working across Taiwan's higher education system. The study explores how PDI support enabled two focal Advisors to develop intellectual grounding, expertise, and confidence as EMI faculty developers. Drawing on rich data sources including PDI workshop and pedagogical materials, Advisor-generated artifacts, interviews, focus groups, and autoethnographic narrative inquiries, we employed Vygotskian genetic-analytical analysis to demonstrate how foundational concepts (Doran & Rieker, 2025) offered in the PDI catalyzed demonstrable shifts in the Advisors’ faculty developer practices, including lesson observations, individual consultations, and faculty workshops, as well as the reasoning undergirding their orientations to these practices. Through these accounts of conceptual development, we synthesize principles and actionable recommendations for developing faculty developer expertise across EMI contexts, addressing critical gaps in systematic, scalable EMI faculty development.
2025 International Joint Conference of APLX, ETA34, and TESPA
Presenter:
Nate Fifield 方努田
EMI Advisor National Taiwan University EMI顧問國立台灣大學
Fulbright Taiwan (Foundation for Scholarly Exchange) 學術交流基金會
nfifield@fse.fulbright.org.tw
Bio:
Nate Fifield is a second-year Fulbright EMI Advisor at National Taiwan University, after a first year at NTUST. He holds a B.S. in Geology & Environmental Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an M.A. in TESOL from California State University. As a former STEM student with extensive EFL/ESL/EAP teaching experience, he brings a valuable learner-centered perspective to EMI teaching while supporting instructors. His current advising and workshop focuses include designing assessments that measure student knowledge rather than AI-generated responses and leveraging AI tools to scaffold course content and assignments more effectively.
Title:
Teachers Training Teachers: Fulbright Taiwan’s Approach to EMI Support and Development at Taiwanese Universities
In this session participants will see how Fulbright Taiwan (The Foundation for Scholarly Exchange) deploys two complementary roles: (1) EMI Advisors, seasoned classroom teachers with M.A.-level training who deliver consultations, workshops, and observation-based feedback for university faculty; and (2) EMI English Teaching Flagship grantees (ETF), early-career educators who provide one-on-one and small-group support for university students alongside cultural, EAP, and professional skills workshops. Unlike purely research-centric approaches, our focus is explicitly practical: seeking to support instructors in their day-to-day teaching as well as providing free-of-charge student programs that empower them to enhance their English proficiency and gain success in EMI courses.
This 25-minute session will (a) outline services and partner campuses; (b) detail our revamped ETF training pipeline that upscales their first year experience working in K-12 settings to support academic skills; and (c) share results, including strong student demand for consultations and faculty engagement throughout consultations and observations. Attendees will leave with exportable elements of the model (training sequence, observation-feedback routines, consultation templates) and concrete strategies for aligning advisor expertise with student support. The session is designed for EMI program leads, faculty developers, and administrators seeking scalable methods to supplement their EMI development efforts.