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"English-medium instruction"
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English-medium instruction in higher education in the Middle East and North Africa : policy, research and pedagogy
\"English-Medium Instruction (EMI) is a rapidly growing global phenomenon in countries where English is a second or foreign language. This book focuses on empirical research studies conducted on this growing trend in the Middle East and North Africa, an under-researched area with regards to the effects and challenges of the implementation of EMI in higher education. The contributors are researchers with first-hand experience in countries in the region, including Iran, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Turkey. Each chapter follows a consistent structure, allowing comparisons to be drawn between policies and practices in different countries. Topics covered include investigating perceptions and attitudes of both students and lecturers, opportunities and challenges afforded by EMI, as well as the evolution of EMI practices. By exploring these issues, through the lens of a decolonial critical approach, this volume informs theory underlying research into the phenomenon of EMI in the region.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Significance of L2 and L3 Motivation in the Context of an English-Taught Program: A Preliminary Study at a Japanese University
This study explores the motivation of international students who simultaneously studied L2 English and L3 Japanese while learning in an English-taught program specializing in policy studies at a Japanese university. Data were collected from five participants using semi-structured interviews, motivation graphs, a biographical questionnaire, and the program’s application form to examine how international students chose the program and the trajectories of their motivations to learn English, Japanese, and policy studies. The results show that all participants had rich experience in learning English and/or intercultural contacts before coming to Japan. Although two participants wanted to live in Japan to learn the language, three had no specific aim of studying abroad. The students’ motivation to learn English was enhanced when their study became more advanced, but their motivation to learn Japanese was more varied and complex. Although sustaining the motivation to learn Japanese over time seemed demanding, one of the participants invested more time in learning Japanese than English. This study highlights that exploring students’ disposition of motivation and international orientation can be beneficial, especially in uncovering why and how students can sustain their motivation to learn Japanese for academic purposes. Furthermore, it could indicate future directions for such programs.
Journal Article
The expansion of English-medium instruction in the Nordic countries
Recently, in the wake of the Bologna Declaration and similar international initiatives, there has been a rapid increase in the number of university courses and programmes taught through the medium of English. Surveys have consistently shown the Nordic countries to be at the forefront of this trend towards English-medium instruction (EMI). In this paper, we discuss the introduction of EMI in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden). We present the educational setting and the EMI debate in each of these countries and summarize relevant research findings. We then make some tentative suggestions for the introduction of EMI in higher education in other countries. In particular, we are interested in university language policies and their relevance for the day-to-day work of faculty. We problematize one-size-fits-all university language policies, suggesting that in order for policies to be seen as relevant they need to be flexible enough to take into account disciplinary differences. In this respect, we make some specific suggestions about the content of university language policies and EMI course syllabuses. Here we recommend that university language policies should encourage the discussion of disciplinary literacy goals and require course syllabuses to detail disciplinary-specific language-learning outcomes.
Journal Article
English-medium instruction and self-governance in higher education
As neoliberal ideals of deregulation, accountability, quality and financial autonomy take hold of education worldwide, higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing economies are adopting strategies to improve educational quality; attract local and international students; enhance institutional ranking and global competitiveness; and, more critically, increase their income. These strategies include internationalising education and developing partnerships with high-ranking universities, particularly those in English-speaking countries. Introducing English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has been a key element of these strategies. Using language-in-education planning as an analytical framework, this study investigates how a Vietnamese public university deployed EMI as a strategy to navigate through the new regime of institutional autonomy (IA) mandated by the government in the context of neoliberal approaches to HE reform. We argue that this top-down policy reform challenged Vietnamese universities to find ways to become autonomous. Although the pursuit of autonomy may lead to financial success, it may also result in HEIs not giving due consideration to questions of educational quality. Furthermore, in the absence of adequate structural planning, IA may have a negative impact on HEIs and the HE system in the country.
Journal Article
Prioritizing English-Medium Instruction Teachers’ Needs for Faculty Development and Institutional Support: A Best–Worst Scaling Approach
This study explored the prioritization of English-medium instruction (EMI) teachers’ needs for faculty development and institutional support by applying a best–worst scaling approach to an EMI program in Japan. This prioritization is important as EMI programs need management under various constraints (e.g., time, budget, and teachers). This study also investigated how teachers’ needs for institutional support differ by English language competence and EMI teaching experience and their relationship with EMI programs (e.g., full-time or adjunct). Questionnaire surveys administered to 38 EMI teachers revealed that, overall, faculty development (FD) program menus training teaching styles, speaking skills, communication skills, and respecting the diversity of students should be prioritized such that it varies depending on the teachers’ English language competence levels but not their teaching experience. Irrespective of their relationship with EMI programs, the recognition and appreciation of their burdens, efforts, and contributions is most needed. There are noticeable differences based on their position over the necessity of pedagogical guidelines, teaching load, and economic incentive.
Journal Article
Japan's English-medium instruction initiatives and the globalization of higher education
This article analyzes a recent initiative of Japan's Ministry of Education, which aims to internationalize higher education in Japan. The large-investment project \"Top Global University Project\" (TGUP) has emerged to create globally oriented universities, to increase the role of foreign languages in higher education, and to foster global human resources. The TGUP identifies 37 universities: 13 as \"top global universities\" intended to compete in the top 100 university world rankings and 24 \"global traction universities\" intended to lead the internationalization of higher education in Japan. Despite the substantial funding behind this initiative, little research has been conducted to evaluate the potential impact of this policy on language planning in higher education in Japan. This paper addresses this gap in its exploration of the TGUP, including key changes from previous internationalization policies. It then presents an analysis of publicly available documents regarding the policy, collected from all 37 of the participant universities. Findings indicate a positive departure from older policy trends and the emergence of flexible, unique forms of English language education in Japan's universities. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).
Journal Article
Aspirational ambivalence of middle-class secondary students in Hong Kong
The research explores Hong Kong students' dispositions towards higher education and employment in relation to understandings of their schooling experiences in English Medium of Instruction (EMI) schools in Hong Kong. The research draws upon Bourdieu's theory of practice, Appadurai's notion of the 'capacity to aspire', and Taylor's concept of 'social imaginary', to help make sense of students' aspirations for the future. Data included observation notes and interview transcripts with members of six focus groups across three distinctive schools in Hong Kong. Analytically, the research shows how aspirational dispositions and logics formed through specific configurations of the broader cultural and social milieu of Hong Kong, middle-class familial practices, non-elite EMI schooling experiences, and the place of English in Hong Kong, were complicit in fostering a sense of ambivalence about the future for these students.
Journal Article
English-medium instruction in Chinese higher education
With the relentless internationalization and marketization of higher education in the past decades, English has been increasingly adopted as a medium of instruction at universities across the world. Recent research, however, has shown that despite its various optimistically envisioned goals, English-medium instruction (EMI) is not without problems in practice. This article reports a case study of an EMI Business Administration program for undergraduate students at a major university of finance and economy in mainland China. Informed by Spolsky's language policy framework, the study made a critical analysis of national/institutional policy statements and interviews with professors and students to uncover EMI-related language ideologies, language practices, and language management mechanisms. Findings evinced a complex interplay of these three constitutive components of language policy in the focal EMI program and revealed considerable misalignment between policy intentions and actual practices in the classroom. These findings raise concerns about the quality and consequences of EMI in Chinese higher education. The article concludes with recommendations for further research on EMI policies and practices in China. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).
Journal Article
“Does Chinese philosophy count as philosophy?”: decolonial awareness and practices in international English medium instruction programs
This qualitative study integrates key theories on epistemic decolonization from Asia, Africa, and Latin America to investigate the decolonial awareness and curriculum practices of teachers and international students in an English as a medium of instruction (EMI) program on Chinese philosophy and culture at a top-rated university in China. Content analysis of the in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 17 informants reveals that the teachers and students all demonstrated varying degrees of decolonial awareness related to the marginalized status of Chinese philosophy in Anglo–-Eurocentric disciplinary systems and adopted the following strategies to decolonialize the curriculum and foster epistemic justice in the unequal geopolitics associated with knowledge production: (1) historicizing Chinese philosophy as a modern discipline that has emerged from inter-knowledge dialogues across philosophical traditions and is still in constant tension with the complex interplay of the semi-colonial, imperial, and Cold War legacies; (2) abandoning the Anglo-Eurocentric benchmark by pluralizing the disciplinary contemporaneity, and (3) cultivating epistemic trust in Chinese through intercultural translation. Moreover, the flexible shuttling between Chinese and English in EMI classrooms and tutorial sessions helped the informants to observe the decolonial awareness that was inherent in their understanding of the discipline-specific ontology. The findings suggest the agentive potential of teachers and international students to foster epistemic justice in EMI curriculum design and implementation that counters the hegemony of English as a colonial force. Finally, implications for decoloniality-informed EMI policymaking and curriculum internationalization are discussed.
Journal Article
Language, Translanguaging, and Epistemic Justice: Multilingual Learning across the Curriculum. Invited Commentary
This commentary discusses how language-in-education policies and practices that embrace multilingualism can promote epistemic justice, constructing more equitable, just, and ethical conditions for learning. The findings discussed are significant in that they illuminate sustained multilingual knowledge-building among peers, showing how these processes enhanced disciplinary learning, legitimated all learners as producers of knowledge, and simultaneously constructed a decolonial ethics of knowing. In so doing, they challenge persistent, colonial linguistic and epistemic hierarchies of value as well as longstanding assumptions about the difficulties and costs of implementing mother-tongue-based multilingual education across the curriculum.
Journal Article