English-medium Instruction In Higher Education Research Articles

Teachers’ transformative agency in English-medium instruction in higher education in Vietnam: a cultural-historical theory perspective

ABSTRACT Higher education worldwide has witnessed a rapid growth of English-as-a-medium-of-instruction (EMI) courses. Research reported complex challenges teachers encounter in transitioning from using L1 as a medium-of-instruction to EMI and acknowledged the importance of teachers’ agency and perceptions. However, little is known about how teachers exercise agency to act on demands of EMI teaching and the role their perceptions play in this process. Within EMI research, teacher agency is not always systematically theorised. Adopting a cultural-historical theory perspective, this study explores how Vietnamese EMI teachers exercise agency to act on perceived demands of teaching academic subjects in English. Data included in-depth individual interviews with 15 EMI teachers from ten universities in Vietnam. Findings revealed these teachers exercised their agency in response to what they perceived as meaningful and important within the broader societal conditions for EMI and the particular activity settings of their discipline with specific EMI student cohorts. They exercised agency to transform EMI practice to be learner-centred, critical thinking- and content knowledge-focused, and future/outcome-oriented, and through this process also transformed themselves as EMI teachers. Findings have implications for EMI research and practice, and for supporting institutions and teachers embarking on EMI.

Predictors of English Medium Instruction academic success in Vietnamese Higher Education

Abstract Recent research has investigated predictors of English Medium Instruction (EMI) academic success in Higher Education in various contexts; however, mixed findings have been reported, and empirical research in emerging contexts like Vietnam is relatively scarce. In addition, little is known about the associations between tertiary EMI outcome, gender, and high school performance. To fill these research gaps, the present study was conducted to explore the roles of gender, high school grades, English language proficiency and vocabulary knowledge (both receptive and productive knowledge) in Vietnamese tertiary EMI academic achievement. To this end, 78 Vietnamese undergraduates majoring in business studies participated in the study. The participants took the Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt et al. 2001) and Productive Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer and Nation 1999) to measure their receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge. Their English language proficiency test scores, EMI course grades, and high school grade point average (GPA) were also collected for data analysis. Simple linear regression analyses revealed that high school GPA, English language proficiency together with both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge significantly predicted EMI academic outcome while gender did not. The results are discussed with implications for EMI in Higher Education.

EMI in Higher Education: Current Challenges

English Medium Instruction (EMI) consists in delivering content in English to students who are non-native speakers of English. With English becoming a supranational and intercultural tool of professional and academic communication, EMI is being introduced by various entities in higher education at a rapid pace in different parts of the world. The focal point of the present research on EMI is the collection of data provided by teachers and students regarding their attitudes toward EMI. Along with the immediate spread, numerous doubts have emerged that need to be addressed in order to render EMI more effective and accessible. This paper presents the current literature on the subject of EMI in higher education, where it is primarily present, and aims to recognize and provide an overview of the challenges that teachers and students face in education in which EMI is incorporated. The challenges may be identified in three main areas, that is at the level of policy and social processes, at the level of teacher’s agency, and finally at the level of students’ perspective. Some of the challenges may be fixed with basic policy changes; however, others, such as the factor of translanguaging, the methodology of establishing linguistic standards, or the process of transition between particular stages of education, require more research into the subject of EMI.

Review of Lasagabaster (2022): English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education

Review of Lasagabaster (2022): English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education

The emotional landscape of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education

This editorial piece is the introduction to our special issue on the emotional landscape of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education. In this piece, we argue for a greater focus on examining the emotional environment of EMI in higher education—the variety of emotions that get entangled in policies, discourses, and practices in local EMI contexts, and the emotional effects of EMI on various stakeholders, such as students, teachers, and administrators. We also center poststructural and critical approaches to examining emotions in EMI, which enable researchers to be responsive to the local contexts, and contribute to developing emotionally supportive and socially just EMI environments. The five empirical studies, two commentaries, and forum piece that constitute this special issue all develop these arguments further.

Impact of teacher collaboration on teachers’ practices and classroom interaction in EMI in higher education

In English medium instruction (EMI) contexts, students often encounter difficulties when learning content knowledge through their second/foreign/additional language (L2). Teacher collaboration (TC) between content and language specialists has been regarded as a potential approach to facilitating student learning in these contexts, since during collaboration, teachers can become more language aware and subsequently better integrate content and language teaching. While previous research has revealed the impact of TC on student learning, little attention has been paid to how it may affect teachers’ instructional practices and classroom interaction. To fill this research gap, this quasi-experimental study invited a drama course instructor and a language instructor at a Chinese university to collaborate to revise the course objectives and instructional activities. The drama instructor then used the revised materials with the experimental class (25 students) while practising her normal content-oriented teaching in the control class (25 students). Data were collected with lesson observations and recordings in the two classes, as well as semi-structured interviews with the two teachers and selected students. Drawing on the notion of language-related episodes (LREs), this study reported the differences in classroom interaction patterns between the two classes. The findings show that through collaboration with the language teacher, the drama instructor incorporated more LREs in different aspects, especially in vocabulary and text structure, in the experimental class than in her control class. These findings yield pedagogical implications for TC and for promoting classroom interaction in the EMI classroom.

English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education in Uzbekistan: Views on Effectiveness, Career Prospects and Challenges

Several higher educational institutions (HEI) have launched English-Medium programs in order to recruit foreign students and increase graduate qualification for better employability. The present study reports on the results of an online survey and semi-structured interviews of administrators, instructors and students towards the use of English as a medium of instruction in tertiary level in Uzbekistan, where Uzbek is the native language of the students and the pedagogical staff. The sample of the study consisted of 34 participants: 13 instructors, 15 students and 6 administrators at the universities of Uzbekistan. The results of the questionnaire and interviews show that implementing an EMI approach would attribute responsibility on the teaching staff and require very carefully designed curricula. The findings also suggest that EMI courses improve English proficiency, contribute to instructors’ professional development, career, and income and enhance students’ interaction with their international fellows. Such recommendations as motivating students, making classes more interesting and comfortable are made by both instructors and students pointing to the fact that English proficiency is crucial to the learning success of professional knowledge. EMI courses offer great opportunities to both students and instructors.

EMI (English‐medium instruction) in Indonesian higher education

AbstractThis article reports on the investigation of English‐medium instruction (EMI) in Indonesian higher education. Two separate but related studies were carried out. In Phase One, a mixed method approach using a questionnaire and interviews was used at a private university in Jakarta in order to gauge the responses of undergraduates studying a range of subjects through English. The results of Phase One suggested that the students at this university generally had high levels of proficiency in English and coped rather well with EMI. Phase Two of the study involved interviewing 17 educators across multiple institutions, and the results of this provided a nuanced picture of the implementation of EMI in higher education across this diverse multilingual nation.

EMI (English‐medium instruction) across the Asian region

AbstractThis article has two main aims. First, to describe the general background to English‐medium instruction (EMI) with reference to Outer Circle and Expanding Circle societies in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Second, it analyses data from each of the four case studies in the symposium in this issue in order to identify and explain the background to, and varying forms, of EMI in higher education in Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, and South Korea.

An evaluation of English-medium instruction in higher education: influencing factors and effects

ABSTRACT Although English-medium instruction (EMI) has been implemented and developed rapidly in higher education, little is known about its learning process and effects. This study employed a systematic approach to explore how diverse factors affect student performance in English and disciplinary learning. We conducted a survey to collect students’ self-report of their learning in the EMI programmes and used partial least square structural equation modelling in evaluation. The findings demonstrate three personal factors (prior knowledge, effort, and interest) and three environmental factors (course, teacher, and resource) have effects on student performance. We find that effort has the strongest direct impact on learning outcomes, prior knowledge the second, while course factor the least. Interest has an indirect effect on outcomes through the mediating effect of effort, and teacher and resource factors have indirect effects on outcomes mediated by course. In addition, prior knowledge has a larger impact on English performance than on subject achievement. The present study theoretically and methodologically contributes to the research field of EMI by systematically examining the learning process of EMI and constructing a structural model of complex relationships of multiple factors affecting student performance in EMI programmes. This study also provides implications for EMI practice.

English-Medium Instruction and Content Learning in Freshman Year: An Investigation of a Saudi University Students’ Challenges and Learning Strategies

The present study investigates the challenges that science freshmen perceive in English-medium instruction at Prince Sattam bin Abdelaziz University in terms of language and learning as well as the frequency of relevant learning strategies employed by students. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 376 students enrolled in the First Year Program at Prince Sattam Bin Abdelaziz University, considering their gender, scientific tracks, and previous English exposure. Results reveals that females were less comfortable communicating with professionals in their classrooms. Simultaneously, freshmen females perceive greater challenges in content comprehension, knowledge application, and learning adaptability. Therefore, they relied on learning strategies supported by L1 more frequently than males. Comparison of groups based on tracks shows that engineering students have more difficulty communicating with professionals than medical students. Furthermore, freshmen with extensive prior English exposure had fewer difficulties communicating with their peers and professionals. They perceived fewer difficulties with content comprehension, knowledge application, and learning adaptability. In contrast, freshmen with little prior exposure to English relied more on L1-related learning strategies. The findings show significant differences in perceiving EMI-related challenges and adopted learning strategies based on the relevant variables. They suggest that the shift from high school Arabic-medium education to English-medium instruction in higher education requires careful institutional and individual planning.

Teacher Training for English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education, by Maria del Mar Sánchez-Pérez (Hershey PA: IGI Global, 2020)

Teacher Training for English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education, by Maria del Mar Sánchez-Pérez (Hershey PA: IGI Global, 2020)

English-medium instruction (EMI) in Moroccan higher education: graduate students’ attitudes

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to contribute to the ongoing debate about the instructional languages in Moroccan education through exploring graduate students’ attitudes towards the potential use of English-medium instruction (EMI) in Moroccan science universities.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, 17 master and doctoral students have been interviewed to explore attitudes towards EMI implementation in Moroccan higher education. The data were collected and analysed based on constant comparative method, which belongs to the grounded theory methodology. The method is based on organizing the raw data into categories according to shared attributes while constantly comparing the parts of the data as they occur. The objective is to formulate new hypotheses and theories about the phenomenon of interest.FindingsThe findings of this study reveal that although graduate students hold positive attitudes towards the future implementation of EMI in higher education, they think students are not prepared for such a switch in the language of instruction given that they have been taught through either Arabic or French in lower levels. Hence, they suggest gradual implementation of EMI in lower levels and introduction of English as a foreign language instead of French at primary level.Originality/valueMost of the previous studies on bilingual education and EMI have investigated non-Anglo-Saxon contexts, where English is the major foreign or second language. The researchers could not have located any study which investigates the possibility to implement EMI in post-colonial contexts, where other foreign languages, bearing colonial conations, are more dominant than English. This study presents the case of Morocco, where French, rather than English, is the dominant foreign language not only in education but also in different other domains of life.

English medium instruction in Higher Education of Afghanistan: students’ perspective

Abstract The study investigated students’ views of reasons for the adoption of English medium instruction (EMI) in Afghan Higher Education, EMI effects on official languages and students’ preference of medium of instruction. It also explored whether students’ gender, first language and English proficiency had any significant impact on their responses. The data were collected from 840 students by means of an online questionnaire from four public universities based in northeastern Afghanistan. The dataset was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that students had a positive attitude towards EMI in higher education. They believed that the universities should adopt EMI for various reasons, e.g., internationalization of universities. They were aware of the negative effects of EMI on the official languages of Afghanistan. They were more likely to select a combination of English and official languages for the medium of instruction. Students’ gender and first language did not have a significant impact on their attitudes towards EMI; however, their English proficiency significantly impacted their attitudes towards EMI. Moreover, their gender and first language, and English proficiency had significant effects on their preference of language of instruction. The study suggests a policy for gradual transition to bilingual education in Higher Education.

Teachers’ experiences of English-medium instruction in higher education: a cross case investigation of China, Japan and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT In recent decades, English taught programmes have rapidly increased in number throughout Europe and East Asia as universities aim to internationalise their curriculum, which has given rise to an increase in English-medium instruction (EMI). This study aims to compare the teaching experiences at three EMI programmes in The Netherlands, China, and Japan in response to calls for more comparative research on the pedagogical issues associated with teaching through English in non-Anglophone contexts. Interviews were conducted with 19 teachers in managerial and classroom-facing roles, working within comparable undergraduate English-taught business degree programmes across the three contexts. Data were thematically analysed for convergent and divergent experiences. Findings indicated similarity between the Chinese and Japanese contexts compared to the Netherlands, highlighting greater concerns surrounding student proficiency, teacher competence, and the overall impact of EMI on educational quality. Unique solutions were uncovered to inform better content and language integration in EMI practices.

The dark side of EMI?: a telling case for questioning assumptions about EMI in HE

Abstract The neoliberalisation of higher education (HE), which began in earnest about three decades ago, and the global spread of English, which began earlier, together have motivated an exponential increase in the number of universities worldwide offering English-medium instruction (EMI) as a key part of their internationalisation policies. EMI in HE is by now a much discussed and examined phenomenon; however, all too often research does not challenge certain assumptions about its existence. One assumption is that the introduction of EMI is an on-the-whole innocuous change in how HE courses are delivered, and that any negative side effects for the primary stakeholders, lecturers or students, are minimal. This paper takes a contrarian and critical view of EMI, highlighting its more problematic side. This is done to some extent through a short and selective discussion of relevant literature in the next section. However, the critique comes through most clearly in subsequent sections of the paper, in which interview data collected from an EMI lecturer at a university in Catalonia are examined. As will become clear, the perspective of this single informant, presented as a ‘telling case’ (Mitchell, John C. 1984. Typicality and the case study. In R. Ellen (ed.), Ethnographic research: A guide to general conduct, 237–241. London: Academic Press), is illuminating, as it highlights aspects of EMI that do not often appear in policy documents and research publications focussing on the topic.

Language policy and planning for English-medium instruction in higher education

AbstractThis article presents English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education (HE) from a language policy and planning (LPP) perspective. Based on a review of EMI policy research in diverse higher education contexts, we address several key contemporary policy tensions in EMI such as English native-speakerism, English monolingualism, and language education with attention to corpus, status and acquisition planning as well as the role of individual policy actors. In light of this review, we argue for an orientation to policymaking for EMI-HE institutions that acknowledges the value of individuals as policy arbiters and aligns institutional goals with “on the ground” needs and practices. We also point to areas of future research that would benefit all EMI stakeholders, in particular critical engagement with the nature of language competence in EMI settings and the enhanced development of evidence-based EMI learning outcomes. Finally, we propose an ecological framework for EMI-HE policy development that could be employed as a heuristic to guide universities in designing concrete EMI policies for their local contexts. As an extension, we also offer an inventory of reflective questions to guide key university stakeholders in effectively engaging in EMI policy processes.

The Role of Internationalization and English as a Lingua Franca in English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education

The Role of Internationalization and English as a Lingua Franca in English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education

A Phenomenological Study of the Language Ideology, Language Management, and Language Practice in English-Medium Universities in Bangladesh: Lecturers’ and Students’ Voices

English Medium Instruction (EMI) is a commonly observed phenomenon in higher education (HE) in the countries where English is mandated as a second or foreign language. The globally conducted studies reported the prospect, practice, problems, and eventualities of EMI in HE. Numbering around 105, private universities in Bangladesh also adopted EMI. Being guided by Cooper (1989) and Spolsky (2009), this phenomenological study explored the language ideology of lecturers and students regarding the benefits of EMI, their remarks about the language management to achieve compatibility for adopting EMI, and their opinion concerning the implementation (language practice) of EMI in the classrooms of private universities in Bangladesh. We collected from eight participants (four students and four lecturers) who responded to the semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The findings of the study suggested EMI does not observe full-fledged practice in the classrooms, as lecturers and students struggle to impart and receive knowledge due to their limited proficiency in the English language, although they did not deny the benefit of EMI to produce globally efficient workforces empowered with English language proficiency. This paper suggested the implementation of a bilingual curriculum in which instruction is delivered in English and Bangla to imparting a great deal of knowledge to the students. In the national language-in-education policy, Cognitive Communicative Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) should be prioritized over Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) to enrich knowledge acquisition.

Incidental attention to academic language during content teaching in two EMI classes in South Korean high schools

EMI (English-medium instruction) is increasingly prevalent and is an important site in which students are introduced to academic English. Research into classroom interaction in EMI in schools has been limited. Recent research into classroom interaction in EMI in higher education (Basturkmen & Shackleford, 2015;McLaughlin & Parkinson, 2018) has drawn on the construct of language-related episodes (LREs) to investigate incidental instances during classroom interaction which is primarily focused on disciplinary content when attention shifts temporarily from content to language. The present article reports a study of LREs in two distinctive EMI, high school settings in South Korea. Analysis of recorded classes indicated that the occurrence of LREs was similar across both settings. LREs occurred frequently, focused mainly on disciplinary uses of vocabulary and were mainly teacher-initiated. Furthermore, the vast majority of the teacher-initiated episodes appeared to arise pre-emptively and not in response to errors, a finding that suggests the disciplinary teachers were proactive in shifting attention to language. Evolving content-driven discussion appeared to prompt the teachers to highlight the disciplinary register, and thus served as an impromptu, transitory means by which the teachers highlighted academic language use in their content teaching.