Multilingual Higher Education Research Articles

EMI and DMI, an elitist language learning approach? An investigation of students’ socio-economic and language profiles

ABSTRACT Internationalisation of higher education has really taken off in recent decades, with universities increasingly organising all or parts of their study programmes in a language other than their traditional language of instruction. Usually, that language is English, which is referred to as English Medium Instruction (EMI), but there are also programmes in other foreign languages, such as Dutch Medium Instruction (DMI) in French-speaking Belgium. Previous research links EMI with access inequity. This study investigates whether this inequity also exists in French-speaking Belgium and whether it extends to DMI by examining the socio-economic and language profiles of students in unilingual programmes versus multilingual programmes with DMI and/or EMI courses. An online questionnaire was administered to undergraduate law, political sciences, and economics & management students at a French-speaking university in Belgium. The results indicate that multilingual programmes attract students of higher socio-economic status (SES) and those who benefited from Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) school education, extracurricular activities or more classes in Dutch or English at secondary level. Taken together, these findings suggest that multilingual higher education with DMI/EMI in French-speaking Belgium is closely linked with access inequity. The article ends with suggestions for institutions offering or considering multilingual higher education.

Epistemic outcomes of English medium instruction in a South Korean higher education institution

ABSTRACT This paper explores the epistemic outcomes of English Medium Instruction (EMI) in a South Korean Higher Education (HE) context. In order to understand the epistemic outcomes, the exploration draws on existing conceptualisations of linguistic and symbolic capital, and the literature on epistemic justice. The paper makes use of qualitative interview data generated with ten Business and Engineering undergraduate students. The analysis reveals that students’ use and trust the Korean and English languages differently across EMI situations. This observation is used to identify two undesirable epistemic outcomes, including: (a) how students are prevented from negotiating understanding of HE subject content using their L1, and (b) the wider epistemic implications of English as the language that provides access to HE subject content. Finally, with reference to Fricker’s theory of ‘epistemic injustice’, we reflect on the new theoretical understanding we have developed of epistemic outcomes in this South Korean multilingual HE context.

Towards a multilayered and multidimensional analysis of multilingual education: ideologies of multilingualism and language planning in Chinese higher education

ABSTRACTAgainst the backdrop of the Belt and Road Initiative, the study reports on the ideological construction of multilingualism in higher education in mainland China. Through a new methodological approach combining intertextual discourse analysis and thematic analysis, this paper concentrates on the interplay of ideologies towards multilingualism between the macro-(national/provincial) and meso-(institutional) levels. We examine 22 political texts issued by agents of different levels, and sixteen paratexts containing language issues discussed by educational administrators and language education experts. The analysis of the texts reveals that there is a gap between the two levels in terms of the variety and connotation of terms related to foreign languages. The analysis of the paratexts identifies three categories of recurring values of languages and four categories of benefits from foreign language (education), among which the pragmatic value of foreign languages for national development is the most significant. Moreover, institutional agents mentioned the instrumental value of languages for personal development and their global cultural value. The multiple perspectives on multilingual education in the Chinese context demonstrate the complexities of the ideological construction of multilingualism in this early phase of diversifying multilingual higher education, which generate important implications for policy makers in China and other countries.

Students’ perceptions of authenticity of plurilingual non-native teachers in multilingual higher education settings: an exploratory and comparative case study of Geneva and Hamburg

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the issue of students’ perceptions of non-native teacher authenticity, combining the literature accounts of authenticity in the fields of foreign language learning, and teacher authenticity (both teachers’ skills and teachers’ linguistic resources). The data Analysis from an exploratory and comparative angle, involving two European Higher Education Institutions, reveals that: (i) assessing plurilingual teachers whose mother tongue is not the language of instruction is contextually, institutionally and disciplinarily bound; (ii) students are aware of the constraints and opportunities related to the teaching situation and are willing to sacrifice some ‘correctness’ in order to gain in multilingual and intercultural ‘depth’.

EMI teacher and student identities and linguistic practices

Abstract Although the incorporation of English Medium Instruction (EMI) in multilingual higher education institutions is widely accepted, it may be a source of tension for university professors for whom English is an additional language, particularly when both teacher and students share an L1 other than English. A need exists to examine how linguistic attributes of EMI are interpreted and executed by participants. This study focuses on dialogue between a content specialist and a language specialist during an EMI teacher development partnership at a multilingual Catalan university. Membership Category Analysis (MCA) explores the categories made relevant in interaction, category associated features and responsibilities, and their procedural relevance within the interaction. The article focuses on results relating to the emerging identities of EMI classroom participants and related linguistic attributes. The results shed light on tensions relating to language use in EMI, and may inform EMI teacher development processes and classroom language policy.

Multilingual Higher Education. Beyond English Medium Orientations

Reviewed by Ana Bocanegra-ValleUniversidad de Cádiz, Spain
 
 Multilingual Higher Education. Beyond English Medium Orientations deals with the complexity of learning and teaching in multilingual higher education (HE) environments. Multilingual Matters has included this volume in the series “Bilingual Education and Bilingualism”, the same series that includes the latest books published on Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) (see Fortanet-Gómez 2013) or English-medium instruction in HE (see Doiz et al. 2013). [...]

An investigation into the plurilingual profile of the newly arrived students at the Melilla Campus of the University of Granada

Abstract University students need to have ability in more than one language in order to foster the transmission of knowledge and research, and so consolidating a multilingual Higher Education. In the context of Melilla (University of Granada), this requirement is added to the plurilingualism in the city (a large majority of the population is bilingual in Spanish and Tamazight). This investigation aims at describing the plurilingual reality of first-year students, as well as the different socio-linguistic variables that could account for results. Data obtained in several tests and questionnaires, with 206 subjects, determine that a clearly plurilingual profile exists among the participants, although the great challenge is centred on reaching communicative competence in a foreign language sufficient to become independent users.

‘I have discovered new teaching pathways’: the link between language shift and teaching practice

ABSTRACTThe aim of this paper is to explore how a shift in the language of teaching and learning can lead university lecturers of a range of disciplines to reflect on and innovate their teaching approaches. The paper is based on a case study of a single university in the north of Italy which is gradually becoming a bilingual higher education institute. Through a thematic analysis of questionnaire and interview data gathered from 53 lecturers who attended professional development courses designed to support them in this move, the authors show how for many lecturers this language shift has offered an opportunity to collectively reflect on their pedagogic approach and become more aware of student needs, as well as their own. This study focuses on a single university, but it helps to shed light on the challenges, implications and also the potential that a language shift can bring. The findings suggest that professional development to support lecturers should be designed to address not only language needs but also to offer space for reflection on practice and to raise awareness of the ‘inherent multilingualism’ of higher education (van der Walt, Christa. 2013. Multilingual Higher Education: Beyond English Medium Orientations. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.).

Multilingual higher education: beyond English medium orientations

Preface Chapter 1: Theoretical orientation: the special place of higher education Chapter 2: Linguistic diversity in higher education: official and unofficial multilingual settings Chapter 3: Managing the consequences of widened access and transnational mobility: the development of multiliteracies Chapter 4: Multilingual pedagogy in HE classrooms: approaches and techniques Chapter 5: From mono to multi: New thinking about higher education

Managing multilingualism in higher education in post-1994 South Africa

Focusing mainly on the historically (white) Afrikaans universities, the article discusses two fundamental aspects of a multilingual higher education environment in the South African context: the concept of a multilingual and multicultural university, and the research which needs to be done in this regard. Arguing that linguistic and cultural diversity is a valuable national asset which needs to be protected and promoted, also in the higher educational context, two types of multilingual universities are distinguished, the factors that affect the implementation of a policy of multilingualism are discussed, as well as the management of the language of learning and teaching practice in multilingual higher education institutions, emphasising the urgent need for research on this theme.

The context of language planning in multilingual higher education

In his latest survey of the prospects for English language teaching in the next 50 years, David Graddol claims that over half the world's international students are taught in English and that universities are increasingly offering courses in English. This seems to be a necessary condition for achieving excellence and prestige. At the same time, the use of English is becoming commonplace and bilingualism is valued more than monolingual, home language speakers of English. These statements must be examined critically in the light of efforts to offer mass higher education in South Africa and to deal with students who may not be well prepared for tertiary studies. It must also be seen in the context of low status languages that may have official status in South Africa but that may feel threatened in the presence of English. This article attempts to show that tertiary bilingual education is determined and conditioned by the same factors that obtain for bilingual education in general: social, historical, socio-structural, cultural, ideological and social psychological factors (as identified by Hamers and Blanc). The claim in this case is that such factors can help educational language planners to understand the birth and growth of bilingual higher education institutions so as to show how spaces can be created for minority and/or low status languages alongside English. An international perspective is offered in comparison to the South African situation in an effort to show how bi/multilingual higher education institutions with a longer history than that of South African institutions grow and change in the face of similar challenges.

Towards multilingual higher education in South Africa: the University of Cape Town's experience

South African universities are required by the Language Policy for Higher Education adopted by the government on 6 November 2002 to implement multilingualism in their learning and teaching programmes. Multilingualism is recommended in this policy as a means to ensure equity of access and success in higher education, in contrast to past colonial and apartheid education policies that left a legacy of inequality, exclusion and failure. The implementation of this policy requires that universities develop language policies that clearly show how multilingualism will be promoted in their institutional environment and in their teaching and learning programmes. Whereas most universities have thus far developed language policies that indicate how multilingualism will be promoted in general communication and environment, the implementation of multilingualism in teaching and learning programmes seems to pose a serious challenge. The University of Cape Town has during the past few years developed its language policy and plan with the aim of implementing multilingualism in its environment and in learning and teaching programmes. The aim of this paper is to discuss the university's experience in this regard and to highlight the lessons for implementing a university language policy that may be drawn from this experience.

The Linguistic Inaccessibility of U.S. Higher Education and the Inherent Inequity of U.S. IEPs: An Argument for Multilingual Higher Education

Should a diploma from a U.S. university imply that the recipient received instruction only in English? If there is bilingual and multilingual education in the K–12 system, why not in higher education? While custom dictates higher education in only English, it has significant, if rarely discussed drawbacks. This article critically examines the popular practice of requiring higher education students in the United States to first demonstrate English proficiency before pursuing a degree and proposes abandoning this practice in favor of a model in which university professors employ sheltered techniques, translated portions of their lecture notes, and bilingual teaching assistants to impart their instruction. In addition, concurrent English for academic purposes (EAP) instruction, closely coordinated with the academic classes, is proposed. Such a model serves language minority and international students more equitably and efficiently and provides numerous benefits for U.S. universities as well.