Investigating Polish EHE teachers’ practices and beliefs. A survey-based analysis.

Abstract

The aim of this research was to gain insights into the current state of English for Higher Education (EHE) teaching in Poland from the perspective of its key stakeholders – EHE teachers. A total of 128 EHE teachers employed in Polish universities participated in an online survey-based study that explored their self-reported practices and beliefs regarding various facets of teaching English at university level. On the one hand, the findings suggest that the participants place considerable emphasis on developing students' communicative and social skills as well as their lexical competence. On the other hand, the study also identified some language components that seem to receive insufficient attention in the classroom. In particular, pronunciation, academic writing, intercultural/pragmatic competence, and grammar are among the most neglected areas. The findings also confirm that EHE teachers are generally open to a shift from general to content-based English teaching in the academic setting and willing to incorporate innovative technological solutions into their teaching. Nevertheless, the data suggest that there is a lack of ready-made materials for teaching specialized English and a need for more institutional guidance and support for EHE teachers.