The EMI Competence Framework — Five Domains

This framework outlines the areas of teaching skills that EMI teachers engage in. 
The sub-competences describe what each domain looks like in practice.

Domain 1 · EMI Awareness & Professional Identity

• I understand what EMI is and how it differs from language teaching, CLIL, and ESP.
• I position myself as a disciplinary expert teaching through English, not as a language teacher.
• I take an ELF orientation, prioritising effective communication over native-speaker accuracy.
• I am aware of how my students experience EMI cognitively, linguistically, and emotionally.

Domain 2 · Planning for EMI

• I write learning outcomes that consider both content and language (Bloom's-aware).
• I align my learning outcomes, teaching activities, and assessment (backward design).
• I design meaningful tasks that integrate disciplinary content and English use (task-based principles).
• I adapt or select materials with scaffolding appropriate for B2-level learners.

Domain 3 · Pedagogical Use of English in the EMI Classroom

• I adapt my pace, vocabulary, and sentence complexity to support student understanding.
• I use signposting, paraphrasing, exemplification, and definition-as-I-go.
• I use gesture, board work, slides, and multimodal scaffolding to support meaning.
• I use my students' L1 strategically and pedagogically when it supports learning.

Domain 4 · Interactive Pedagogy & Assessment for Learning

• I activate students' prior knowledge of both content and the language of the topic.
• I ask effective questions at a range of cognitive levels (Bloom's-aligned; Socratic).
• I scaffold student spoken and written output (speaking and writing frames, wait time, prompts).
• I give feedback using feed up / feedback / feed forward principles. 

​Domain 5 · Reflective & Collaborative Practice

• I reflect critically on my own EMI teaching practice.
• I identify concrete next steps for my own ongoing development.
• I engage with peers and with language specialists (e.g., EAP/ESP colleagues).
• I am open to adapting my practice over time in response to my students and context.