Developing Glocalized Materials for EMI Courses in the Humanities

Abstract

English-medium instruction (EMI) courses in an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) context are often offered in the academic fields that attract international students, such as engineering, technology, and business. EMI courses in the humanities, however, except for English literature, English language, and linguistics, are not as widely offered as the abovementioned areas in Taiwanese universities. A primary reason for the scarcity of EMI courses in the humanities lies in the argument that to study the local culture, one must know the language first. Thus, international students are traditionally expected to take the humanities courses in Chinese. As geographical boundaries are diminishing, a growing number of international students are showing an interest in interdisciplinary studies related to the culture, arts, languages, peoples, politics, and societies of the host countries. These students are not language majors and thus may need to rely on a lingua franca, such as English, to complete their academic studies in the humanities within a limited time. This chapter will investigate two cases and find out some challenges faced by EMI teachers in designing the humanities courses and their strategies adapted for presenting the materials to meet different needs of their students.