Students’ views of disciplinary literacies in internationalised English-medium higher education: Step-by-step survey development

Abstract

In the last two decades, research on English-medium education (EME) has grown exponentially because of internationalisation and globalisation. Many early studies have examined university lecturers’ attitudes to the change in the language of instruction as well as on their linguistic and pedagogical needs. However, much less attention has been paid to students and, most specifically, to how they view disciplinary literacies (DLs) in EME. Our examination of DLs deviates from previous research in that it foregrounds two dimensions which have not received sufficient attention in the EME setting, namely internationalisation of higher education and students’ perceived use of bi/plurilingual repertoires. This article describes the step-by-step process of developing a psychometric survey that examines students’ views of internationalisation and bi/pluriliteracies in the development of DLs in EME contexts. The resulting survey shows the presence of four interrelated constructs: student L1/s in disciplinary practices, internationalisation, English in disciplinary practices, and international community of practice. This instrument demonstrates strong reliability after several piloting stages and adjustments. Implications for pedagogy and policy development are also provided in the conclusions.