Oxford EMI in France

Oxford EMI is proud to have delivered courses and talks at numerous universities and events in France in 2025. Here’s a round-up of what we did.

Franco-British Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Our first visit to France in 2025 was to Paris, where Oxford EMI Director Julie Dearden and Head of Training Tom Spainwere delighted to deliver a talk at an SME Breakfast Event, hosted by the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FBCCI) on the topic of producing work-ready bilingual graduates through internationalisation.

We were delighted to meet so many representatives from Universities and Grandes Écoles and answer their questions about our training courses.

Julie presenting at the FBCCI in Paris

Tom presenting at the FBCCI in Paris

The networking sessions after this talk also provided plenty of opportunity to discuss all things EMI and Transnational Education (TNE) related. We thank the FBCCI for hosting us, and look forward to our continued collaboration in 2026.

You can watch the full Oxford EMI SME Breakfast talk with FBCCI on our YouTube channel.

Face-to-face course in Montpellier

We returned to France later that spring to deliver a face-to-face training course at the University of Montpellier.

Course participants working with Head of Training, Tom Spain

As in previous years here, course participants included content teachers from a variety of disciplines (maths, science, education, philosophy, business) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers.

Over the 5-day course, course participants collaborated through discussion and group work, including micro-teaching. This provided plenty of opportunities to share EMI classroom experiences and concerns, as well as explore new ideas and solutions, and experiment with putting these into practice.

Course participants planning and delivering microteaching sessions in Montpellier

We completed the course by discussing the importance of setting up local Communities of Practice through which course participants can continue to develop their understanding and implementation of EMI classroom design and delivery.

Special thanks to the team in Montpellier for inviting us to deliver this face-to-face training.

A course participant receives his Oxford EMI certificate

The use of AI in EMI at APLIUT Congrès

Later that spring, Senior trainer Simon Dunton returned to France to attend the 45th APLIUT congr è s in the picturesque town of Colmar.

This brought together teachers of all modern foreign languages from across France, including overseas territories such as Réunion, to discuss the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in language learning and Higher Education.

As well as attending some fascinating group discussions, Simon was honoured to present a talk on training EMI students to use generative AI tools, including ChatGT, Perplexity and Gemini, in an equitable and academically rigorous way to:

Support understanding of complex concepts
Find credible academic sources
Navigate these sources

Attendees also discussed ways in which Gen AI tools could assist content and EAP teachers to design better, more supportive class slides and develop questions to use in interactive classes that encourage students to engage in Higher-Order Thinking.

Exploration and discussion on these topics and tools now forms part of the Oxford EMI face-to-face training.

Shots of Colmar

EMI and the Changing Role of Language Teachers at RANACLES congrés

In our final visit to France in 2025, Head of Training Tom Spain was delighted to give a talk at the 32nd RANACLES congrès, held at Nantes Université.

Ranacles is the French National Network of Higher Education Language Centres. This conference was attended by language specialists from universities around the country and further afield. It included speakers from Brazil, Romania, Italy and Belgium in what was a very international event.

There was a special EMI focus on the second day of the conference, during which Tom spoke about the new roles for language teachers when universities adopt EMI. Research suggests that EAP and ESP specialists have a crucial role to play in helping students to achieve success by working closely with their EMI lecturers and supporting students throughout the language acquisition process. With over 500,000 international students now studying in France, this kind of collaboration across departments and faculties is key. Tom was able to share some examples of good practice in this area from our work in France, Germany and Japan.

Tom speaking in Nantes

Looking forward

Many thanks to the universities that have hosted us to deliver training courses or to speak at events. We look forward to continuing our work in France in 2026. We’d also be delighted to see EMI lecturers from France in the UK on the Oxford EMI Summer Programme 2026.

If you would like to find out more about how Oxford EMI can support EMI or TNE provisions at your institution, please get in touch.