Linguistic demands and language assistance in EMI courses. What is the stance of Italian and Spanish undergraduates (original) (raw)
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Lynn Mastellotto, Renata Zanin (Eds.). EMI and Beyond: Internationalising Higher Education Curricula in Italy (pp. 133 – 163), 2021
This paper reports on a qualitative study investigating the opinions on English Medium Instruction (EMI) held by Italian students of an EMI Master’s degree programme of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Data for this study were elicited by means of semi-structured interviews and are taken from a larger ongoing doctoral research study of students’ attitudes towards English and its pedagogy that combines descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis. Respondents discussed EMI and Internationalisation at Home (IaH) in relation to a number of other topics, including: non-native speaker teacher (NNST)'s competence, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and multilingualism, students’ motivation, international students and teachers. Although the majority of the respondents expressed satisfaction with their learning experience, and they all revealed a positive attitude towards EMI, they were also unanimously critical of the communicative competence in English of the non-native speaker teachers (NNSTs) of the nonlanguage courses. Due to the limited number of instances reported, further research is needed to validate the results. Nevertheless, it is hoped that this paper may provide useful contribution to the task of leading to better-informed ways of integrating language and disciplinary content for the internationalisation of academic curricula.
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This paper reports on a qualitative study investigating the opinions on English Medium Instruction (EMI) held by Italian students of an EMI Master's degree programme of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Data for this study were elicited by means of semi-structured interviews and are taken from a larger ongoing doctoral research study of students' attitudes towards English and its pedagogy that combines descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis. Respondents discussed EMI and Internationalisation at Home (IaH) in relation to a number of other topics, including: non-native speaker teacher (NNST)'s competence, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and multilingualism, students' motivation, international students and teachers. Although the majority of the respondents expressed satisfaction with their learning experience, and they all revealed a positive attitude towards EMI, they were also unanimously critical of the communicative competence in English of the non-native speaker teachers (NNSTs) of the nonlanguage courses. Due to the limited number of instances reported, further research is needed to validate the results. Nevertheless, it is hoped that this paper may provide useful contribution to the task of leading to better-informed ways of integrating language and disciplinary content for the internationalisation of academic curricula.
The purpose of this volume has been to give an account of the status of English as a medium of instruction in various political, geographical and ideological contexts: Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western and Central Europe, regions at different stages of EMI implementation. It is our hope that the preceding chapters have given comparative insights into some of the discussions and issues associated with EMI in European higher education. While contributors have investigated a diverse set of empirical, pedagogical and political issues, many issues remain to be addressed in more detail. In these final few pages of the volume, we briefly review some of the main issues that have arisen in the preceding chapters as well as in the broader EMI literature and propose further directions in methodological approaches, areas, and scopes. We believe the field would benefit from a broader range of research designs and methodological approaches. A favoured methodology both in the chapters of this volume (see Chapters 2–5) as well as in the wider EMI literature from its early days are attitudinal studies based on questionnaires and interviews (e.g. Lehtonen & Lönnfors 2003; Jensen et al. 2009; Tange 2010; Vinke 1995). Such studies unveil a complex range of attitudes – positive as well as negative – towards the policy and practice of EMI. Many point to the challenges of teaching and learning in an additional language and express concerns over a possible decrease in importance of the local language. Others highlight the benefits of EMI such as international collaboration, improved English language proficiency and heightened job prospects for graduates
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2015
The purpose of this volume has been to give an account of the status of English as a medium of instruction in various political, geographical and ideological contexts: Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western and Central Europe, regions at different stages of EMI implementation. It is our hope that the preceding chapters have given comparative insights into some of the discussions and issues associated with EMI in European higher education. While contributors have investigated a diverse set of empirical, pedagogical and political issues, many issues remain to be addressed in more detail. In these final few pages of the volume, we briefly review some of the main issues that have arisen in the preceding chapters and the broader EMI literature and propose further directions in methodological approaches, areas, and scopes.
As Dearden notes (2015), teaching tertiary programs in English is a growing phenomenon, and the number of universities incorporating these into their program offerings have risen substantially in the last decade. This may be due to the rise of the importance of internationalization (Morell, Alesón, Bell, Escabias, Palazón & Martínez, 2014). Bologna is also often credited for this change (Kirkpatrick, 2016). However, as the case in Italian public universities show, converting whole programs to English as a matter of course may meet with resistance from faculty and students, and perhaps for good reasons. This paper explores the rise in EMI tertiary programs in Spain and from a European context, and presents approaches to develop linguistic competence in instructors. It seeks to understand how this up and coming trend may affect teaching English at this level. How will EMI instructors become more focused on teaching language as well as their content area?
Foro Educacional, 2021
English language has grown to be a lingua franca of the present day world. Therefore, even non- English European and Asian countries have adopted English as a medium of instruction. English has continuously been the medium of instruction in the higher education of Pakistan in spite of having a great linguistic diversity and national language Urdu as the medium of instruction at school level. This study aims to explore the perceptions of undergraduates about EMI, challenges they face in EMI classrooms and solutions they suggest for mitigation of their issues. The qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews reveals that students perceive EMI to be beneficial for higher education, employment and progressive thought. However, they face challenges related to teachers’ English proficiency, code-switching, vocabulary and receptive as well as productive skills. They suggest that English-proficient instructors, continuous use of English, language support from university can...