Commanding the Class in a Foreign Tongue: The Influence of Language Proficiency and Intercultural Competence on Classroom Leadership

2021 ◽  
pp. 001312452110484
Author(s):  
Changmi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
English Language ◽  
Predicting Factors ◽  
Chinese University ◽  
Determining Factors ◽  
English Medium Instruction ◽  
Reported Data ◽  
Classroom Leadership ◽  
Communicative Abilities

This article examines the influence of English language proficiency and intercultural competence on the English-medium instruction lecturer’s classroom leadership. It analyzes self-reported data obtained by three measuring scales from 188 English-medium instruction lecturers of a Chinese university. The Pearson correlational analysis indicated that there were significant positive relationships between the English-medium instruction lecturer’s classroom leadership and the two predicting factors. The multiple regression analysis suggested that both intercultural competence and English proficiency contribute much to the variance of the English-medium instruction lecturer’s classroom leadership. It was found that the lecturer’s language proficiency and intercultural communicative abilities could be two determining factors for the lecturer to deliver their disciplinary knowledge and command the class in an engaging and competent manner. The findings may provide implications for the strategic intervention of English-medium instruction educators in institutions of higher education.

A longitudinal study at an English medium instruction university in Turkey: the interplay between English language improvement and academic success

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Doğan Yuksel ◽  
Adem Soruç ◽  
Mehmet Altay ◽  
Samantha Curle
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Content Learning ◽  
English Medium Instruction ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Academic Content

Abstract This article reports a quantitative empirical study that investigated whether English language proficiency increases over time when studying academic content through English Medium Instruction (EMI). It was also investigated whether an increase in proficiency predicts EMI academic achievement. Student English language test score data and Grade Point Average (GPA) data were collected from a public university in Turkey. Two academic subjects were compared: Business Administration (a Social Science subject, n = 81) and Mechatronics Engineering (a Mathematics, Physical and Life Sciences subject, n = 84). Results showed that in both subjects, English language proficiency statistically significantly improved over a four-year period of studying through English. Furthermore, this improvement predicted EMI academic achievement; meaning that the more proficient students became in English, the higher they achieved in their EMI academic studies. This provides evidence for policymakers, EMI practitioners, and language professionals around the world that English does improve when studying academic content through English, and that this improvement has a positive effect on content learning outcomes. Implications of these findings, and suggestions for further research are discussed.

scholarly journals PROVISION OF ENGLISH-MEDIUM INSTRUCTION: TRENDS AND ISSUES

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-21
Author(s):  
OLGA KVASOVA ◽  
CAROLYN WESTBROOK ◽  
KEVIN WESTBROOK
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
British Council ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
The World ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
English Medium Instruction

The article addresses the current trends of teaching subjects through the medium of English which has been boosting in the world and in Ukraine. Introduced due to globalization processes, teaching in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) has become an essential part of internationalization policies of universities. The increase in numbers of international students is viewed as an indication of quality of education provided by universities; it contributes to universities’ higher ratings and competitiveness. The introduction of EMI has been sustainably promoted by the British Council. Nonetheless, EMI providers across the world keep encountering similar issues and challenges. Amongst those, the most essential is low English language proficiency of non-native English speakers – both teachers and students. The article aims to examine the training provided to Ukrainian teachers who deliver EMI courses. The authors surveyed 28 EMI teachers in two universities in the country. The results imply the necessity to reprofile linguistic and pedagogical courses for EMI teachers, including training them in implementing innovative and interactive teaching techniques. The prospects of further research arouse from the need to develop a quality system of assessing students’ learning outcomes.

scholarly journals Chinese University Students’ Experience of WeChat-Based English-Language Vocabulary Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 554
Author(s):  
Fan Li ◽  
Si Fan ◽  
Yanjun Wang ◽  
Jinjin Lu
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
English Language ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Chinese University ◽  
Chinese University Students ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Many

The outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide in 2020 has posed tremendous challenges to higher education globally. Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is among the many areas affected by the pandemic. The unexpected transition to online teaching has increased challenges for improving and/or retaining students’ language proficiency. WeChat, a popular social application in China, was widely used for TEFL at Chinese universities before COVID-19. However, it remains unclear whether the use of WeChat can facilitate Chinese university students’ English-language lexical proficiency during the pandemic. To fill this gap, the aim of the present study was two-fold: (1) it initially explored the relationship between the variables including students’ academic years, genders, and academic faculties/disciplines, and their lexical proficiency; and (2) it evaluated the effectiveness of a WeChat-assisted lexical learning (WALL) program in facilitating learning outcomes of English-language vocabulary. One hundred and thirty-three students at a university in Northern China participated in the WALL program for three weeks. As the results indicated, the independent variables had no correlation with the students’ lexical proficiency. More importantly, the students had a decline in the test scores after using the program, compared to their initial test scores. Moreover, the difference was reported to be medium. The findings further proposed questions on applying WeChat to vocabulary teaching in a large-scaled transition. The study is expected to provide insights for tertiary institutions, language practitioners, and student stakeholders to troubleshoot the potential problems regarding implementing WeChat-based TEFL pedagogies.

scholarly journals English-Medium Instruction in Self-Financing Tertiary Institutions in Hong Kong – Views and Practices from the Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Marine Yeung ◽  
Vic Lu
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Tertiary Institutions ◽  
British Colony ◽  
English Medium Instruction ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
University Lecturers

The medium of instruction (MOI) has been a bone of contention in Hong Kong, a former British colony, since its colonial days. Despite the Hong Kong government’s effort to promote the “biliterate and trilingual” language policy, advocating Cantonese, English and Putonghua as the three official spoken languages and emphasizing the importance of literacy in both written Chinese and English, most tertiary institutions today still adopt English as the medium of instruction (EMI). However, with the expansion of tertiary education in the early 1990s and the decline in the general English language proficiency of university students, some university lecturers have found it difficult to teach in English as required. This raises the issue of the practicality of the indiscriminate adoption of the EMI policy at tertiary level, particularly at the self-financing tertiary institutions where students are generally known to have under-performed in the English subject. In order to understand whether or how the EMI policy is upheld in these institutions, focus group interviews were conducted with students from various programmes of five self-financing tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. The findings indicate these students’ strong preference for English-medium instruction with the belief that it can improve their English proficiency, though their actual approaches to coping with the demand on their limited English and how they view and use the three languages in class deserve policy makers’ serious consideration.

scholarly journals PREDICTING LOW EMPLOYABILITY GRADUATES: THE CASE OF UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA

2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (03) ◽  
pp. 523-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
HOCK-EAM LIM
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Predictive Power ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Right Censoring ◽  
Predicting Factors ◽  
Graduate Unemployment ◽  
The Right ◽  
Universiti Utara Malaysia ◽  
Unemployment Problem

The persistence of the graduate unemployment problem warrants the need for predicting factors that are associated with low employability graduates. It is found that ethnicity, English language proficiency and types of degree obtained are significant predictors of graduates' employability which is measured either by the number of days being unemployed or probability of being unemployed. Compared to the Tobit model, the Probit model which does not accommodate the right censoring bias is found to have less predictive power in terms of the number of days being unemployed.

scholarly journals Assessing English as an International Language for Government Officials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Douglas Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
English Language ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
International Communication ◽  
Test Battery ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Strategic Competence ◽  
International Language

<p>The function of English as an international language (hereafter called EIL) is firmly entrenched in many aspects of modern life, such as academia, aviation, business, education, international relations, science, and tourism. This trend has led high-stakes English language proficiency tests to serve increasingly critical gate-keeping roles for people seeking admission to tertiary institutions, employment overseas, and career advancement. However, while language tests focus on language proficiency, they do not measure the ability over and above core linguistic competence that enables and enhances successful international communication. As more and more English communication occurs between people from different language and cultural backgrounds, research and testing of these skills is warranted.  This thesis identifies receptive intelligibility (listening skills), productive intelligibility (speaking skills), intercultural competence, and strategic competence in negotiating meaning as key abilities that enhance the use of EIL. An investigation of these four abilities sets the groundwork for their conceptualization and operationalization into a test battery aimed at government officials from developing Asian and African countries who have gone through English-language training at Victoria University of Wellington. Results from classroom observations and a survey of the participant’s target language use tasks serve to highlight the contexts and purposes for which they use English, as well as providing the contexts for developing test tasks and items and conceptualizing skills used to improve international communication. The four abilities identified above were then operationalized into testable items for an online test battery consisting of four constructs and a total of 76 items. The purpose of this test battery is to serve as a low-stakes assessment tool for making decisions regarding the international communicative competence of government employees who use English for international communication.  The validation of the test battery uses the Bachman and Palmer (1996) approach for determining test usefulness, which is shaped by six test qualities. These qualities form a validation argument supported by evidence for construct validity, reliability, authenticity, interactiveness, practicality, and impact. Results from the validation of the test battery show that the correlation between the four constructs (receptive intelligibility, productive intelligibility, intercultural competence, and strategic competence) is positive, however each of the theoretical constructs was found to be much deeper and broader than the test battery is able to measure. Intercultural competence was found to be the least related to intelligibility and strategic competence, suggesting that intercultural problems are less immediate barriers to successful international communication.  The discussion focuses on the major issues with the test battery, such as construct under-representation, internal consistency problems and the logistical challenges of online testing. This thesis concludes with the methodological limitations of the test battery and suggestions for broadening and deepening test items to account for the complexity and multidimensionality of these four constructs. While the test needs further development, it is a first step into assessing the dynamic and fluid nature of English as an international language.</p>

scholarly journals Assessing English as an International Language for Government Officials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Douglas Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
English Language ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
International Communication ◽  
Test Battery ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Strategic Competence ◽  
International Language

<p>The function of English as an international language (hereafter called EIL) is firmly entrenched in many aspects of modern life, such as academia, aviation, business, education, international relations, science, and tourism. This trend has led high-stakes English language proficiency tests to serve increasingly critical gate-keeping roles for people seeking admission to tertiary institutions, employment overseas, and career advancement. However, while language tests focus on language proficiency, they do not measure the ability over and above core linguistic competence that enables and enhances successful international communication. As more and more English communication occurs between people from different language and cultural backgrounds, research and testing of these skills is warranted.  This thesis identifies receptive intelligibility (listening skills), productive intelligibility (speaking skills), intercultural competence, and strategic competence in negotiating meaning as key abilities that enhance the use of EIL. An investigation of these four abilities sets the groundwork for their conceptualization and operationalization into a test battery aimed at government officials from developing Asian and African countries who have gone through English-language training at Victoria University of Wellington. Results from classroom observations and a survey of the participant’s target language use tasks serve to highlight the contexts and purposes for which they use English, as well as providing the contexts for developing test tasks and items and conceptualizing skills used to improve international communication. The four abilities identified above were then operationalized into testable items for an online test battery consisting of four constructs and a total of 76 items. The purpose of this test battery is to serve as a low-stakes assessment tool for making decisions regarding the international communicative competence of government employees who use English for international communication.  The validation of the test battery uses the Bachman and Palmer (1996) approach for determining test usefulness, which is shaped by six test qualities. These qualities form a validation argument supported by evidence for construct validity, reliability, authenticity, interactiveness, practicality, and impact. Results from the validation of the test battery show that the correlation between the four constructs (receptive intelligibility, productive intelligibility, intercultural competence, and strategic competence) is positive, however each of the theoretical constructs was found to be much deeper and broader than the test battery is able to measure. Intercultural competence was found to be the least related to intelligibility and strategic competence, suggesting that intercultural problems are less immediate barriers to successful international communication.  The discussion focuses on the major issues with the test battery, such as construct under-representation, internal consistency problems and the logistical challenges of online testing. This thesis concludes with the methodological limitations of the test battery and suggestions for broadening and deepening test items to account for the complexity and multidimensionality of these four constructs. While the test needs further development, it is a first step into assessing the dynamic and fluid nature of English as an international language.</p>

English Language Development for Non-Native Pre-Service Teachers

2017 ◽  
pp. 141-163
Author(s):  
Andrew Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Language Development ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Classroom Setting ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Primary School Age ◽  
Communicative Abilities

This chapter is describing a plan for a mentor teacher assisting pre-service teachers during their practicum using English in an Emirati national school. The plan consists of 20 lessons that covers speaking, reading, listening, and writing to Kindergarten to primary school age students (3 – 12 years old). As an educator, the author is constantly looking for ways to enhance student's communicative abilities, especially non-native speakers of English. There is a constant need to provide scaffolding and learning situations to make sure pre-service education students feel comfortable using English language in a classroom setting. This chapter will give background information for people who want to do research into incorrect language usage and its effect on students in the classroom. It also describes an outline for a course to develop language proficiency and confidence to use communicative language in a classroom setting.

scholarly journals Assessment of Academic Staff Performance in English Medium Instruction

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 52-64
Author(s):  
Vita Kalnbērziņa ◽  
◽  
Indra Karapetjana ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
System Development ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Staff Performance ◽  
English Medium Instruction ◽  
Internationalisation Strategies ◽  
Study Process

One of the internationalisation strategies for higher education institutions is internationalisation of their curricula by delivering English-medium instruction programmes. These internationalization efforts can be successful if support for the language needs of all stakeholders involved is provided. English language proficiency assessment of academic staff is an essential prerequisite to the implementation of a high-quality study process in the English language. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to validate the assessment system of academic staff performance in English medium instruction at a university in Latvia and the use of mediation strategies as a basis for the assessment system development. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the test results suggests that the integrated assessment tasks demonstrate higher internal consistency and higher correlation with the test results and the performance of the academic staff in the international setting.

scholarly journals Understanding the Learning Challenges of English-Medium Instruction Learners and Ways to Facilitate Their Learning: A Case Study of Taiwan Psychology Students’ Perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-340
Author(s):  
Tzu-Ling Hua
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Global Education ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
English Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
English Medium Instruction ◽  
The One ◽  
Psychology Course

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become a global education phenomenon in recent decades, especially in higher education. However, its implementation is still facing criticism. On the one hand, learners are welcoming the envisaged benefits of preparing them with professional content knowledge and English language proficiency to compete in the new global economy; on the other hand, they are reluctant to take the courses because of the challenges and difficulties EMI creates. Meanwhile, EMI lecturers are concerned about students’ inability to survive, or better still thrive through EMI learning. EMI lecturers are experts in their professional domain but are not trained or prepared to teach EMI courses yet. This qualitative study examines the perception of first-year undergraduate students taking the EMI foundation psychology course in Taiwan, focusing on their perspectives of factors facilitating or hindering their EMI learning, and their suggestions for improving the situation. The results not only point out what kinds of teaching practices contribute to challenges for EMI learners in their learning process but also the underlying reasons and the pedagogy practice that students suggest can be used to improve the situation. Insights provided by this study can be used to assist EMI lecturers in examining their pedagogical practice and expand their knowledgeability about pedagogy. They can also be used as a way forward for assisting in the development of EMI teacher training and professional development, and the implementation of EMI.

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