Lecturers’ Perceptions of English Medium Instruction at Engineering Departments of Higher Education: A Study on Partial English Medium Instruction at Some State Universities in Turkey

Abstract

English-medium instruction (EMI) is expanding in Turkey and especially at higher education. Universities with EMI are more favored and popular for students and parents in comparison to universities without EMI. There are integrative and instrumental reasons to prefer universities with EMI. Therefore, English, in a way, competes with Turkish as the medium of instruction, especially at higher education. English is partially used as a medium of instruction at some universities which offer one third of the lectures in English and the others in Turkish. However, views of lecturers on whether EMI is a requisite and benignant in terms of instructional goals are generally ignored. This paper reports on the results of a survey of 63 lecturers that have different titles at university, such as professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and assistants from engineering faculties of two universities with partial EMI. This research aims to compare their attitudes towards EMI. A Lickert-type scale questionnaire was used in the study to collect data on attitudes of lecturers. The findings may provide some insights into lecturers’ perceptions of their teaching in English: lecturers in partial EMI programs may consider that they are less capable of performing their teaching duties or may feel some aspects of teaching to be more difficult.