ESP/EAP Through English-Medium Instruction: Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become commonplace in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Spain and in many other countries, being implemented as a strategy to increase the competitiveness and attractiveness of universities at the international level. The present article investigates the stances of lecturers involved in various internationalization programmes in regard to the challenges that EMI inception and implementation entails, such as language and content integration, English proficiency of teachers and students, teachers’ drives, teacher training needs and institutional support, among other issues. To gain a more comprehensive insight into the development of EMI, data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with three separate groups of lecturers: (i) EMI practitioners, (ii) lecturers interested in EMI and (iii) lecturers from the Department of Modern Languages, experts in second language acquisition (SLA) and bilingual education. The results showed that the implementation of EMI at the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) is still in its infancy and there are several areas for improvement such as (i) the approval of a multilingual language policy that includes a specific and legally-binding protocol for lecturer recruitment and commitment in the programme, and (ii) the design of a more comprehensive teacher training plan offering accreditation to enter EMI and supporting effective implementation by means of in-service courses.

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Perceptions of Thai Teachers of English Towards English Medium Instruction: A Case Study of a Local Primary School

Journal of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics ◽

10.32996/jeltal.2021.3.9.2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 3 (9) ◽

pp. 13-21

Author(s):

Tawanshine Penthisarn ◽

Pilanut Phusawisot

Keyword(s):

Primary School ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Intensive English Program ◽

Teachers Perceptions ◽

Study Approach ◽

English Medium Instruction ◽

Efl Classrooms ◽

Speaking Confidence

Using a case study approach, this study investigated teachers’ perceptions of EMI, the challenges teachers encountered while adopting EMI, and opportunities for EMI in Thai EFL classrooms. The participants were three Thai teachers who used English as a medium of instruction in subjects such as mathematics and science in an intensive English program at a private primary school in the northeastern part of Thailand. Data were obtained from teachers’ journals and semi-structured interviews. The data were transcribed and coded into themes using content analysis. The current study reports the perceptions of Thai EFL teachers and reveals the challenges of EMI in Thai EFL classrooms. As the findings reveal, the participants perceived EMI as an educational advantage, as preparation for the international community and as an approach to enhance students’ speaking confidence. Although EMI offers potential benefits, the study reveals that when teaching, the participants are challenged by students’ language proficiency, classroom size, a lack of teaching materials, teacher’s lack of content knowledge and a lack of support from the school. Moreover, the study suggests some recommendations for pedagogical implication in adopting EMI in Thai EFL classrooms.

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English as an Academic Lingua Franca: discourse hybridity and meaning multiplicity in an international Anglophone HE institution

Journal of English as a Lingua Franca ◽

10.1515/jelf-2021-2054 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 31-58

Author(s):

Sami Alhasnawi

Keyword(s):

Meaning Making ◽

Academic Discipline ◽

English For Academic Purposes ◽

Academic Disciplines ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

Scientific Publications ◽

Ongoing Research ◽

Teachers Perceptions ◽

Shared Practice ◽

English Medium Instruction

Abstract Factors of globalization have led to a constant rise of English as an academic lingua franca (ELFA). This is evidenced not only by the increasing use of English in scientific publications, but also in the attraction held by Anglophone countries as destinations of high-achieving international students and the rise of English-medium instruction (EMI) outside of Anglophone institutions. While ongoing research in ELF has shown that the native-only norms are being challenged through the changed realities of English use, little attention has so far been paid to how similarly or differently ELFA is conceptualized and practiced across academic disciplines within the same international Anglophone University. For this end, this work presents data on the English for Special Purposes/English for Academic Purposes and content teachers’ perceptions on English and how this, in turn, shapes their classroom discourse as a shared practice among members of the same academic discipline in a highly international UK-based university. Findings suggest that ELFA is characterized with its versatility and volatility as part of the dynamic nature of disciplinary norms for meaning-making and knowledge-construction practices.

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