Earticle

Despite the recent expansion of English-medium instruction (EMI) in a non-English speaking educational context, few studies have investigated teaching methodology for EMI. Using a mixed method, this study examines the effects of teacher feedback on college students’ their perspectives of learning a business subject through EMI. The quantitative part of the study investigated questionnaire responses of two groups of students enrolled in a course on entrepreneurship: the control group of the lecture-style class offering little teacher feedback (n = 158) versus the experimental group featuring extensive feedback (n = 153). For the cross-examination of these quantitative results, a semistructured interview with four respondents followed. The analysis showed that the students’ disciplinary backgrounds (general studies, business, and engineering) create differences in their perspectives of EMI and learning the business subject. Among the three major groups, the business major students ranked English proficiency as the most important for their career purposes. The feedback-concentrated instruction contributed not only to learning the subject, but it also moderated the differences between the disciplines. Notably, the participants’ comprehension of the subject significantly correlated with their evaluation of EMI. These findings highlight the crucial effect of teacher feedback on acquiring discipline-specific knowledge and cultivating new perspectives of EMI.

English is becoming the global language of business, education, science and scholarship, and Englishmedium instruction (EMI) in higher education is a rapidly growing, multidimensional global phenomenon. Previous research on EMI has predominantly highlighted the forces driving this phenomenon, implementation challenges, and stakeholders’ language proficiency and attitudes, while very few studies have discussed changes in pedagogical practices to improve the quality of EMI at the micro level, particularly in the Asian context. This article investigates the effects of formative feedback delivered via a social Q&A online platform on learners’ performance and motivation and explores students’ perceptions of the use of the platform. It analysed pre-test, post-test, and questionnaire data from 130 students enrolled in an English-mediated business course at an EMI university in South Korea. These data were supplemented by the focus-group interview with eight students. The findings suggested that the application of the platform was viewed favourably by the students and that technology-mediated feedback significantly enhanced their writing performance and motivation, increased their language and content knowledge, and supported their active engagement. The findings have several pedagogical implications for other EMI contexts.

본 연구는 간호대학 학생을 대상으로 영어로 진행되는 전공교과목에 대한 태도, 만족도 등을 분석하기 위하 여 216명을 대상으로 설문조사를 수행하였다. 설문결과, 학생들은 EMI 수업이 자신의 미래에 긍정적인 영향을 끼칠 것이라는 문항이 가장 높게 나타난 반면 수업시간외 동료들과 영어로 의사소통하려고 노력하는 항목은 가장 낮은 점수를 보여주었다. 학생들은 EMI수업이 원활히 진행되기 위해서 EMI수업 진행에 적합한 교육환경의 조성이 필요하다고 응답하였다.

Purpose: To analyze students' attitudes toward English-Medium Instruction (EMI) classes for nursing students. Methods: From January 23 to January 30, 2020, a survey was conducted using a web-based survey program on student attitudes, satisfaction, and improvement measures for EMI classes. 216 responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 63.7%. Results: The item with the highest score on the attitude toward EMI lectures was 'EMI classes will be of great help to student’s future'. The item 'I will try to speak English with my classmates outside of the EMI class if possible' showed the lowest score. Students answered that they need an appropriate educational environment for the smooth operation of EMI classes, fewer students per class and support for group studies

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become an international phenomenon, but studies of engineering professors conducting EMI remain rare. Furthermore, few studies have been conducted on EMI from the perspective of Korean engineering professors. Thus, the faculty at a Korean engineering school that is leading the EMI trend among Korean universities was selected for investigation. A questionnaire survey was conducted for 48 professors in various engineering fields. They were asked how they and their students could be assisted to achieve effective EMI. In addition, statistics on the EMI classes within the school and on the professors’ backgrounds related to their ability to conduct EMI were examined. The results demonstrate that even though the majority of the professors believed that many students lacked sufficient English skills to successfully participate in EMI classes, they were reluctant to encourage the expansion of English language teaching (ELT) for students. Moreover, the professors’ backgrounds suggested that they themselves were in need of intensive English language training to provide adequate EMI; nevertheless, many professors were not in favor of such training. The professors’ critical attitudes toward the school’s EMI policy may provide an explanation as to why many had reservations about expanding ELT for students and for themselves.

The last few decades have seen escalating national and institutional efforts to internationalize higher education around the globe. One current, popular strategy is to provide English-medium instruction (EMI) in educational contexts where English is a foreign language. As a curricular strategy intended to internationalize tertiary institutions and improve the quality of higher education, EMI has enjoyed strong policy support in Asia. However, there is a scarcity of empirical research in Asian contexts to justify such policy support. This article draws on the current literature and discusses the rationale and spread of EMI in European and Asian countries. It then presents the findings of four empirical studies recently conducted on EMI in several Chinese universities to provide a Chinese perspective. By way of conclusion, the article discusses the implications of the aforementioned studies for endeavors to implement EMI in Chinese and other EFL contexts.

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become popular in universities in Korea. The trend, spurred by the media-initiated university rankings and the globalization policy of Korean universities, has been found to bring about several adverse effects. The purpose of this research was to investigate the perceptions of the implementation of EMI at a science and engineering university in Korea and the effects of EMI on content teaching and learning outcomes, and to suggest ways to maximize the advantages of the policy while decreasing its disadvantages. Questionnaires were administered to 41 faculty members, 439 undergraduate students and 403 graduate students of a university that has enforced the EMI policy since 2010. To examine in-depth the opinion and perception of the policy, structured interviews were also conducted with seven professors, ten undergraduate students and eight graduate students. The questionnaire and interview results show that the EMI policy implemented in an EFL context proved to be ineffective and unsuitable in delivering course content due to the limited English proficiency of professors and students. Professors and students also demonstrate strong opposition to the policy because it was imposed unilaterally by the university without their support and consensus. Suggestions from the perspectives of ESL/EFL practitioners are provided to minimize the side effects of the EMI policy in an EFL context.

This study examines the comparative attitudes of students and professors toward English-medium instruction (EMI) policies at Korean universities. Specifically, it investigates these stakeholders’ experiences with EMI implemented in science and engineering universities, the main facilitators of EMI and the internationalization of Korean higher education. Within a mixed method framework, questionnaire surveys were administered to 523 students and 37 professors from three leading science and engineering universities, and supplementary interviews were conducted with nine professors. The results of the analysis show that both professors and students believe that EMI should be continued. With respect to their motivations to engage in teaching and learning subjects in English as a foreign language (EFL), the majority of both groups were involved in EMI due to their university’s policy, with lower satisfaction in EMI classes than in Korean-medium classes. More students than professors were unconvinced of the effects of EMI on their English ability. Notably, despite the inadequacy of their English ability, many students were not enthusiastic about enhancing their levels of English language proficiency. These contradictory views are discussed to propose ways to explicitly promote English language instruction as well as EMI-related professional development for subject professors at EFL higher education institutions.

As EMI is expanding globally, studies on the satisfaction with EMI are increasing rapidly. While researchers in SLA routinely apply CB-SEM to a small sized, non-normal data in their EMI satisfaction studies or confine themselves to descriptive statistics of each item in their questionnaires, such practice could suffer from many methodological pitfalls. This study aims to introduce PLS-SEM as an alternative to CB-SEM by applying PLS-SEM to a data set on EMI satisfaction, illustrating the analysis processes and comparing the outputs from CB-SEM. The results show that PLS-SEM could be a compensatory alternative to CB-SEM. Further analyses of the survey data indicate that students would evaluate instructor’s English use primarily in relation to their assessment-related activities and that the overall satisfaction of EMI could be heavily dependent on the instructor’s lesson preparation and teaching skills in class.

This study aims to examine how English-medium instruction policy in an EFL context is interrelated with L2 motivation and achievement of the students taking a college English speaking course. The data consisted of 88 Korean college students’ questionnaire responses, final scores in an English speaking course, and qualitative interviews with 8 students. The findings indicated that the students had higher extrinsic motivation than intrinsic motivation. Participants’ perception of contributions of foreign instructors and of the English-medium instruction has been examined as the two subscales of the learning context under English-medium instruction policy, which engendered high scores. Whereas these contextual factors had significant correlations with achievement in speaking, motivation was found to have no direct correlation with the achievement. The results corroborate the roles of the learning context in the learning process as motivational subscales affect achievement through their interplay with the context. The role of the English-medium instruction policy, therefore, is significant as a mediating factor, which influences students’ motivation on the one hand and their speaking achievement on the other hand.

This study explores the effects of teacher feedback on engineering students’ perceptions of learning a business subject and English development in the context of English-medium instruction (EMI). Using a mixed method, it examines specific contributions of teachers’ extensive feedback to the students’ emerging perceptions of interdisciplinary education and EMI. The quantitative section includes questionnaire responses of two groups of students enrolled in four sections of an entrepreneurship course: the control group (CG) in which the students received limited feedback in the lecture-style EMI (n=137) and the experimental group (EG) of extensive corrective feedback (n=133). These results are cross-examined by a semi-structured focus group interview with four respondents. The analysis shows that the university seniors’ mean satisfaction score with EMI, despite staying around the mid-point, was higher than that of the others, and significantly more so than the freshmen group. Notably, EG students appreciated EMI more than CG students. Subsequent findings establish that extensive feedback correlates with the increased positivity towards learning entrepreneurship and, more importantly, English development. This study thus proposes English programs for specific purposes and a support system including an EMI-specialized teaching methodology.

This paper aims to examine the perceptions of teachers and students at a gifted high school in Central Vietnam about teaching science subjects such as Maths, Chemistry, Physics, and Biology through English. Using questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and class observations as research instruments, this study also explores the challenges the administrators, teachers, and students are facing in adopting English as a medium of instruction (EMI). The findings revealed that leaders, teachers, and students appreciate the project and show interest in EMI, but that its implementation experiences a lot of dilemmas and tensions partly owing to English competence, pedagogical methods, materials, and management. From these findings, the study suggests some implications to help make EMI implementation more applicable and effective at the high school level.

The development of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) is of great interest to language and language policy researchers in an era of globalization and internationalization. Despite recognition of a number of implementational problems and constraints, EMI has been widely introduced into various non-native English-speaking (NNES) countries. The question of what challenges face stakeholders in the implementation of EMI was our major focus in a two-year project that investigated a new EMI undergraduate program in Vietnam. Selected findings from the study’s interview component reveal that lecturers were challenged by their own language abilities, students’ language competence and learning styles, pedagogical issues, and resource availability. Based on these findings, suggestions are made for enhancing the success of similar programs.

This article critically examines a number of aspects of using English as a medium of instruction (EMI) at higher education institutions (HEIs) in Vietnam. It draws from a wide range of literature in different contexts. In the light of document analysis, the article aims to address such issues as whether EMI at HEIs ensures students’ acquisition of language skills and subject content, whether EMI benefits a majority of people in the country, and whether it marginalizes disadvantaged students from an equal chance to accredited HEIs. It is concluded that although EMI proposed at HEIs in Vietnam is considered a timely and wise response to globalization and regionalization and as a solution meeting socio-economic and political requirements in the new era, its implementation is a long way off. For this project to be successful, its feasibility and other interfering factors at macro and micro levels are to be carefully considered or else foreseeable failures will inflict long-lasting detrimental effects on the stability and development of the country politically, socio-linguistically and economically.

Over the last decades, English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has been embraced as a means of fostering the internationalization of higher education by enhancing learners’ English proficiency and academic knowledge, thus facilitating their employment prospects. This study explores students' perspectives on the EMI program implementation at a law university in Vietnam. A mixed-methods approach was employed, involving survey responses from 223 participants and follow-up interviews with 16 students of a high-quality law training program. The results indicated that students addressed EMI's benefits in terms of law content knowledge and English proficiency enhancement, critical thinking and problem-solving skills development, as well as better career and academic opportunity. Notwithstanding, obstacles related to discipline-specific content, legal English terminology, in-class participation discussions and learning materials were observed. These findings are expected to provide valuable insights for educators and policymakers to refine teaching strategies and improve learning outcomes.

Trong vài thập kỷ qua, việc sử dụng tiếng Anh như một phương tiện giảng dạy (EMI) đã được đón nhận như một cách thúc đẩy quốc tế hóa giáo dục đại học thông qua việc nâng cao năng lực tiếng Anh và kiến thức chuyên môn, tạo điều kiện, cơ hội việc làm cho người học. Nghiên cứu này nhằm tìm ra quan điểm của sinh viên về việc triển khai chương trình EMI tại một trường đại học Luật ở Việt Nam. Nghiên cứu sử dụng phương pháp nghiên cứu hỗn hợp bao gồm khảo sát 223 sinh viên và phỏng vấn sâu 16 sinh viên (trong số 223 sinh viên trả lời phiếu khảo sát) trong Chương trình đào tạo Chất lượng cao ngành Luật. Kết quả cho thấy sinh viên nhận thấy những lợi ích của EMI trong việc nâng cao kiến thức chuyên ngành Luật và năng lực tiếng Anh, phát triển kỹ năng tư duy phản biện và giải quyết vấn đề, cũng như mở rộng cơ hội nghề nghiệp và học tập. Tuy nhiên, nghiên cứu cũng chỉ ra những trở ngại liên quan đến tính phức tạp của nội dung chuyên ngành, thuật ngữ tiếng Anh pháp lý, thiếu hụt nguồn học liệu cũng như sự chưa tích cực trong tham gia thảo luận của người học trên lớp. Kết quả này hi vọng có thể đưa ra những gợi ý hữu ích cho giảng viên và nhà hoạch định chính sách nhằm hoàn thiện chiến lược giảng dạy và nâng cao hiệu quả học tập.