Lecturing in English – Universidad de Almería Professor Powers On
Located on the Mediterranean, the University of Almería was founded in the early 1990s and has since grown its student population and standing among European higher education institutions. Today, approximately 14,000 students participate in a wider range of BA, MA, and doctoral programmes. Full-time professor in marketing at UAL’s Department of Business and Management, Raquel Sánchez Fernández, lectures in tourism marketing, customer relationship management, marketing, and other subjects. She is also engaged in various research projects and the university’s management. Despite her extensive experience lecturing in English, Raquel attended an Erasmus+ programme here at Atlantic.
At the end of her course week (Lecture Effectively in English), we spoke to Raquel to learn about her work at her university and her Atlantic Centre of Education journey.
Raquel started by introducing herself:
My name is Raquel Sánchez Fernández. I am from Almería, Spain, and I work at the University of Almería. I am a full-time professor in marketing in the Department of Business and Management at my university. I teach subjects such as Introduction to Tourism Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, Marketing, and other related courses.
My main research focuses on consumer behaviour, customer satisfaction, loyalty, and perceived value. Recently, I have also become involved in studying influencer marketing.
In addition to my academic roles, I am involved in university management. I am the Director of Bachelor’s Degrees for the Vice-Rectorate of Degrees and Teaching Innovation in my university. Therefore, I combine teaching, research, and management responsibilities.
Elaborating on her exceedingly busy, varied, and stimulating workload, Raquel continued:
I love teaching. I like researching, too. My relationship with the students is excellent. I also like managing, I mean, exploring how to design or solve some problems related to planning degrees and so on. Lately, I have collaborated in designing strategic plans for the faculties to teach some subjects in English or another second language.
With the English language growing more important every day, Raquel explained her university’s drive to deliver content through the medium of English:
We have different objectives. One of them is to facilitate the international exchange with other universities, another is to cater to international students looking for subjects in English, because they don’t speak Spanish. They have a little time to improve their skills in a second language, so they prefer subjects in English.
We combine this ambition with our students’ interest in speaking or learning a second language to acquire knowledge through the medium of a second language. So we have both Spanish and Erasmus students in our English classes.
Since 2010, Raquel has been lecturing in English, so it came as a surprise that someone so experienced would seek out professional development here at Atlantic. But with English increasingly prevalent, Raquel thought it crucial to hone her competencies:
It’s been more than 10 years now. That time, I wanted to come out of my comfort zone and improve my language skills. The only way to do so is to challenge yourself and use the language. At the beginning, it was very difficult for me. At present, it’s also difficult Students from Germany, the Netherlands, and other countries speak very good English.
But my main objective is to teach them about marketing. That’s the subject, using English as a communication tool. In the process, we are both making progress in English and raising our English levels.
When asked about her motivation for travelling to Ireland, she said:
My main reason for coming here is your school’s extensive experience. This is my third year in Ireland on this type of scholarship. For us, it’s a scholarship to learn English. So I must confess that my main objective was to improve my English. It was mandatory at my university to attend to an English course related to teaching methodologies. So that’s why I chose this course.
I have discovered that it was a very good idea because all of us have enjoyed the course very much and learned a lot.
One highlight was discovering new methodologies. I have taken notes about new activities and ideas, which I can use in my classes. We got a lot of practical ideas. This was not a theoretical course. And the methodology that our teachers use is very nice. We are very happy with the course. At the same time, I think that I have learned new vocabulary, expressions, and more. It was a combination of both.
Raquel went on to highlight how the newly discovered methodologies will play into her lecturing and work. While she participated in Lecturing Effectively in English in the mornings, she spent her afternoons doing English Language and Irish Culture.
The afternoon course is more closely related to the English language. Every day was different. One day, music, one day Irish culture, another day phrasal verbs and pronunciation.
When asked about her trip’s highlight, Raquel said:
Well, I should say the best thing has been the course because it has surpassed my expectations. I have learned a lot about teaching strategies that are very useful and that I’m going to use in my classes.
Outside of tuition, Raquel and her classmates went on a Walking Tour of Galway, ventured to the Cliffs of Moher, and were looking forward to a trip to Connemara.