Teaching English Literature to Italians in English: lecturer and student reflections

The medium of instruction for most non-language courses for the undergraduate degree in Mediazione Linguistica e Culturale at the University of Padova is Italian. Following a pilot course with a self-selected group of students in the 2008-9 academic year, in 2009-10 the 1st year English Literature course was taught in English to all students. This paper presents the approach adopted by the lecturer and her reflections on the experience. It then goes on to discuss the responses of 176 students to a post-course questionnaire investigating their attitudes towards the teaching of the course content in a foreign language and perceptions of their language learning during the course. The mixed abilities of the students and variations in responses according to their language level are discussed. Based on lecturer and student experiences, possible implications for the introduction of CLIL in non-language degree courses at the university are considered.