English as Medium of Instruction in University Education

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to examine the use of the language policy in higher education in a multi-ethnic and a multilingual country such as Republic of Macedonia. The change in use of official languages has turned a new page not only for Albanians, but also for all other ethnic minorities in the country. The new law for using a minority language in higher education has gained importance in social and political aspects. Language planning policy covers two main periods that is before and after the Ohrid Framework. This research study gives a special emphasis on the use of English as a third language among multi ethnicities at South East European University as the first established university open to all ethnicities of the country in which Albanian, Macedonian and English are the medium of instruction. Therefore, the study uses the methodology of comparing language objectives and learning outcomes between English Department and Language Center. The findings of the research study done on the use of English in higher education provide some crucial differences based on English language proficiency. It can be concluded that the paper gives some insight into the theory of language planning in education and provides the reader with significant information on the different language objectives between the English Department (ED) and the Language Center (LC).