"Nothing beats the real thing": The use of examples in EMI lectures

Abstract

This chapter presents an analysis of the examples introduced by EMI lecturers in the lessons included in the TAEC corpus. The transcripts are analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively through the Sketch Engine suite of tools, along with the relevant videos and field notes. After measuring the frequency of verbal operators that are likely to mark the formulation of examples, the focus is placed on all the occurrences of the lemma "example" (n = 541) to explore their frequency and distribution, their linguistic and pragmatic features, along with their linguistic and cultural management. The results shed light on the considerable variation in the formulation design of examples across disciplines and individual lecturers, with both standard and non-standard language use. Although there is a prevalence, to some extent, of paratactic structures, direct questions, pre-positioning, and references to practical, external examples, other features that appear less frequently in the TAEC corpus (e.g., storytelling) can nonetheless inform best practices to the benefit of EMI lecturers and learners alike.