EMI Teachers in a ‘caught-between’ situation? Insights from a case study of an internationalised Chinese university

Abstract

ABSTRACT In view of the rapid growth of English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education institutions (HEIs), we observe the need to account for the educational and linguistic consequences of HEIs’ decision to ‘Englishise’ their curricula. Especially, EMI in Asian countries (e.g. China) are fuelled by state-level initiatives to internationalise the higher education sector and implemented top-down in local universities. Although empirical studies report on the (mis)alignments between policymaking and implementation of EMI, little is known about how the interplay between EMI and internationalisation of HEIs is contextualised and negotiated in local contexts. Using the ROAD-MAPPING framework [Dafouz, E., and U. Smit. 2016. ‘Towards a Dynamic Conceptual Framework for English-Medium Education in Multilingual University Settings.’ Applied Linguistics 37 (3): 397–415], we present a case study of an internationally-oriented Chinese university with five distinctive types of EMI. Triangulated documentary and interview data reveal: (1) contextualised policymaking of EMI, which takes into account the bi-directional internationalisation and the needs of the target student cohort, is crucial at the practitioner-level; (2) norms of language use are shaped both top-down and bottom-up, and the teacher-practitioners exercise their agency in enabling bi/multilingual language use and awareness toward Global Englishes from the bottom-up. We also shed new light on how the integration of language and content in EMI is negotiated and/or realised by presenting three special cases.