Abstract
Teaching through English Medium of Instruction (EMI) is a theory-based pedagogy that has been adopted in many European and Asian countries as a strategic initiative in educational internationalization. To date, there has been little research into EMI in-class teaching and learning. In effect, lived experiences in EMI in-class practice have been largely ignored. To address this gap, we reported on a case study that explored the linguistic and pedagogical characteristics of EMI lecturers’ teaching in a university in southern China. Twenty academic staff in the university’s EMI programs were recruited. Their in-class EMI teaching processes were observed and audio-recorded. The data was analyzed by drawing upon multilingualism and instructional design theories. This research found that Chinese EMI lecturers’ bilingual repertoire led to their English instruction featuring Chinese language influences, from pronunciation to syntax and that translanguaging strategies were purposively employed to achieve their goals including students’ cognitive understanding, affiliative bonds and the lecturers’ own survival for teaching. Further, that and the instruction applied in the EMI classes were more topic-centered than problem-centered, focusing on activating new learning and knowledge presentation through demonstration.
Highlights
Teaching through English Medium of Instruction (EMI) is a fairly new learning delivery system
The perception that English is essential to each nation’s participation in a rapidly growing global economy is reflected in the rationales developed for promoting EMI teaching in their higher education systems [12,13,14,15,16]
Some of the lecturers were observed adding a vowel at the end of those English words ending with a consonant, influenced by their familiarity with Chinese pronunciation. These findings indicate that the EMI lecturers applied their previous phonological knowledge in the use of new language
Summary
Teaching through English Medium of Instruction (EMI) is a fairly new learning delivery system. The Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) has recently introduced policies that prioritize EMI teaching in higher education as part of the country’s strategic plan for developing its World First Class University and First Class Academic Discipline Construction [8,9] This is an element of the nation’s ambition to make China the top destination for international students [6]. The perception that English is essential to each nation’s participation in a rapidly growing global economy is reflected in the rationales developed for promoting EMI teaching in their higher education systems [12,13,14,15,16] This market-driven top-down initiative undertaken by numerous countries has not necessarily been an easy or smooth transition. The following section provides a review of literature that has informed this research
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