Teaching Staff

Dr. Amani Jaber is a sociolinguist and international researcher specializing in multilingualism, language and identity. She completed her PhD at Bar-Ilan University and a postdoctoral fellowship at Ben-Gurion University, and she currently serves as Head of English at the Atid Education Network. Her research explores how language practices intersect with gender, culture, and social mobility in stratified societies. At the Technion, Dr. Jaber will be a visiting lecturer and conduct a study on the cultural and pedagogical impact of AI-based language tools in Israel’s diverse school system, examining how these technologies shape inclusion, identity, and critical digital literacy across Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking classrooms .

My academic interests include language acquisition, bilingualism, and the evolving role of technology in language learning. I hold a PhD from the University of Haifa. My doctoral research explored the influence of languages on each other, with a particular focus on the effect of first-language (L1) linguistic skills on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning and vice versa.

Currently, my research project deals with the impact of artificial intelligence on academic writing, investigating how AI tools shape academic writing practices in terms of coherence and critical thinking.

English Medium Instruction (EMI), defined as the use of English to teach academic subjects in contexts where English is not the majority language (Dearden, 2014; Macaro, 2018), has expanded rapidly in higher education worldwide and in Israel following the 2019 Council for Higher Education policy that requires all undergraduates to complete at least two academic courses taught in English (Council for Higher Education, 2019; Wingrove et al., 2025). Despite this expansion, there is limited empirical evidence on how EMI operates in Israeli institutions across lecturers, students, and institutional structures, and on how multilingual students manage academic writing in English in EMI courses, particularly with the rapid uptake of generative AI tools.

My PhD research addresses this gap by examining EMI through three complementary perspectives: lecturers, students, and institutions. It will (1) analyze how universities oversee, evaluate, and sustain EMI courses and programs, (2) assess lecturers’ views on EMI, and (3) study undergraduate students’ experiences of EMI in Israel.

מייל אישי                                    shlomitb@technion.ac.il
מייל תפקידי לקורסי אנגלית ועברית ha.students@technion.ac.il

Senior Teaching Fellow

Michal Tal is a senior teaching associate in the Department of Humanities and Arts at the Technion–Israeli Institute of Technology. She holds a PhD (2016) in Hermeneutics and Culture Studies from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Dr. Tal studies two different disciplines: (1) English teaching in higher education and technology in the service of language learning; and (2) Interdisciplinary analysis of literary themes, particularly those related to questions of identity, subjectivity and individuality.

Her latest literary publications include “Language Adventures in the Japanese Corporation: A Lacanian Reading of Amélie Nothomb’s Fear and Trembling“ (2020) and “Double Agony: Is Literary Doubling a Cure for Suffering or Its Source?“ in The Psychoanalytic Review.(2019). Her recent publiation in the study of ELT is “Integrating international teleconferences into

EGAP courses: Preparing students for real-life professional situations“ (2021, with Scott-Monkouse and Yelnevskaya)

Orit Rabkin has a PhD in American Literature and Literary Theory from the University of Oklahoma. She studied literacy and composition alongside her PhD and began her career teaching composition writing and literature to undergrads. Currently, she coordinates and teaches undergraduate English as well as PhD science writing.

ד”ר צפורה רקדזון משמשת כרכזת ומרצה לכתיבה אקדמית לתואר שני במחלקה. ד”ר רקדזון מלמדת מגוון קורסי כתיבה ותקשורת כבר למעלה מ-20 שנה. היא קיבלה את הדוקטורט שלה בטכניון בתקשורת מדעית בחוג לחינוך בטכנולוגיה ומדעים, ותואר ראשון ושני בבלשנות מאוניברסיטת חיפה. תחומי העניין המחקריים שלה כוללים הוראה והערכה של תקשורת מדעית ומקצועית, במיוחד כתיבה ואוצר מילים.