Session Information
31 ONLINE 26 A, On the various components of language learning: Arenas, approaches, actors
Paper Session
MeetingID: 824 2354 5871 Code: V5ZTwY
Contribution
This study, still in progress, examines English-Medium Instruction (EMI) in private universities in Bangladesh to better understand its challenges and opportunities. Specifically, we explore teachers’ and students’ perceptions of academic benefits and challenges of teaching and learning through EMI and the nature of the learning space in the EMI class. In this research we refer to the pedagogic environment (Harklau, 1994) within the physical or virtual space that creates learning affordances or constraints. Thus, the space of learning means “the limits of what is possible to learn” (Marton & Tsui, 2004, p. ix). In this understanding, learning (academic content and academic English, in our case) is not seen as an automatic outcome of what goes on in the classroom; rather, it is argued that the environment conducive to learning has to be constituted by teaching action. This space must satisfy certain conditions including language input, interaction and participation in learning activities, explicit instruction, feedback, and language socialization. These affordances are the result of goal-driven interactions of teachers and students engaging with their beliefs, expectations and linguistic and communicative repertoires, curricular and pedagogic resources, and institutional norms and policies within the physical, psychological, and sociocultural make-up of the classroom.
EMI has received much research attention (De Costa et al, 2021; Macaro, 2021; Richards & Pun, 2021), highlighting academic challenges faced by staff and students. However, it has received very little attention in Bangladesh, even though all private universities (#110) have invariably adopted EMI. Therefore, there is urgency about researching EMI from teachers’ and students’ perspectives. More critically, EMI research has not sufficiently addressed key conceptual issues or learning challenges and potential in the EMI class.
What is observed in many universities is that content teachers teach content subjects (e.g., science or business) through English with little pedagogical training (Harklau, 1994). Thus, academic English is left to the agency of individual teachers (Ali et al., 2020), with the majority ignoring the question of language for student learning.
The misunderstanding of EMI has clear ramifications for language and content learning. Much of the literature (e.g., Doiz et al., 2013) equates EMI with what is called content-integrated language (Coyle et al, 2010; Dalton-Puffer, 2011) or content-based instruction (Brinton et al, 1989) in which both content and language receive instructional attention (Hamid, 2006). However, this equating is conceptually problematic because EMI and content-integrated learning are two distinct models of language teaching and content teaching (Mohan, 1979). Wannagat (2007) rightly argued that EMI and content-integrated learning have “significant differences in their conceptual and actual realization” (p. 663).
EMI constitutes the new global trend in higher education, pursuing internationalization, student mobility and employability. Private universities in Bangladesh have adopted EMI to pursue these goals. However, EMI has attracted much controversy both locally and globally because students have to switch off their first language (e.g., Bangla) and operate in English over which they have varying levels of command.
In Bangladesh, few studies on EMI have been carried out (e.g., Hamid & Al Amin, 2022; Jahan & Hamid, 2019; Karim et.al. 2021; Rahman et al, 2020). However, there is a dearth of broad-based and detailed study that examines what happens in the EMI class, what learning potential there is and how teachers and students perceive and experience the EMI policy and practice. This research investigates the following questions:
- How do academics and students in private universities perceive academic benefits and challenges of teaching and learning through EMI?
- What is the academic and English learning potential of the EMI class in the private university?
Method
This is a study in progress. A mixed methods approach (Creswell & Clark, 2017) is adopted to carry out this research. The first stage is quantitative to address the question of how academics and students in private universities perceive academic benefits and challenges of teaching and learning through EMI. Two separate questionnaire surveys—for teachers and students—are carried out. Both surveys elicit Likert scale responses to questions about participants’ perceptions about EMI benefits and challenges. The questionnaires also provide space for open-ended comments by participants. The survey data is analyzed using descriptive and interpretive statistics (De Vaus, 2014), together with collation of key themes developed from participants’ comments. The quantitative phase has the target of recruiting 800 students and 300 teachers from six universities. Staff and students from all disciplines are invited to participate in the surveys to ensure representativeness of the voices, perspectives, and experiences. For the qualitative phase, an intensive fieldwork is undertaken in three of the six universities included in the survey. At each university site, one EMI content class in science is observed for 4 weeks in the first semester and 4 weeks in the second semester. The lecturer teaching the class is interviewed twice in each phase: once before the classroom observation and once after the observation. The pre-observation interviews help understand their role in language development and their plans for teaching. Post-observation interviews focus on specific episodes from class proceedings and elicit their comments/reflections on issues related to the learning space. At each site a focus group of 4/5 students is formed from each class. These students are engaged in focus group discussions once before the observation and once after the 4-week period of observation. The group discussions help understand students’ beliefs, expectations, and experiences in the EMI class and at the university in terms of English learning opportunities and affordances. The interview, focus group and classroom observation are recorded with participants’ permission and transcribed verbatim before undertaking thematic analysis of the data. These themes are the basis for answering the relevant research questions. The findings of the quantitative and qualitative data are compared to indicate their convergence and divergence. Such comparison provides the basis for a triangulated and robust understanding of the research problem comprised by the research questions.
Expected Outcomes
The significance of this study lies in addressing educational challenges associated with EMI in higher education in Bangladesh and globally. The research will help understand the limits of language learning in the EMI class and staff and students’ perceptions of challenges and opportunities. Globally, the findings will shed light on what happens in the EMI class and help develop our understanding of the nature of the learning space. In practical terms, the findings will be of immense value in designing pedagogical interventions, education and training of content lecturers and language support mechanisms for EMI students. While the EMI classroom remains at the centre of the research, it also draws on the views and perspectives of academics and students across multiple universities to provide broad patterns in our understanding of EMI and its challenges and opportunities. This dual but complementary focus—in aims and methodology—marks an innovation of the project. The study aims to produce the following outcomes: 1. Empirical evidence about the perceptions and experiences of EMI in private universities; 2. Greater understanding of the EMI classroom and underlying learning space within the classroom environment; 3. Empirical basis for designing EMI pedagogy and good practices principles; and 4. Evidence for teacher development and teaching and learning programs and activities. The project has obvious relevance to Bangladesh. It also has a wider relevance globally. It has relevance for Europe where English is the dominant language of academic publication and so developing fluency in English is a major factor in preparing students for academic success. It has further relevance for the wider European context, including Britain, in that British and some other Wider European organisations are the agents who provide EMI in Bangladesh and in other Asian countries.
References
Ali, M. M., Hamid, M. O., & Hardy, I. (2020). Ritualisation of testing: Problematising high-stakes English-language testing in Bangladesh. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 50(4), 533-553 Coyle, D., P. Hood & D. Marsh (2010). CLIL. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Creswell, J. W., & Clark, V. L. P. (2017). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Sage publications. Dalton-Puffer, C. (2011). Content-and-language integrated learning: From practice to principles?. Annual Review of applied linguistics, 31, 182-204. De Costa, P. I., Green-Eneix, C., & Li, W. (2021). Problematizing language policy and practice in EMI and transnational higher education: Challenges and possibilities. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 44(2), 115-128. De Vaus, D. (2014). Surveys in social research. London: Routledge. Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D., & Sierra, J. M. (Eds.). (2013). English-medium instruction at universities: Global challenges. Multilingual matters. Hamid, M. O. (2006). An Apology for content-based instruction. Spectrum: Journal of the Department of English, 4, 80-96. Hamid, M. O., & Al Amin, M. (2022). English as a medium instruction in Bangladeshi higher education: A policy perspective. In J. McKinley & N. Galloway (Eds.), EMI in practice in higher education. London: Bloomsbury. Harklau, L. (1994). ESL versus mainstream classes: Contrasting L2 learning environments. TESOL quarterly, 28(2), 241-272. Jahan, I., & Hamid, M. O. (2019). English as a medium of instruction and the discursive construction of elite identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 23, 386-408. Karim, A., Kabilan, M. K., Ahmed, Z., Reshmin, L., & Rahman, M. M. (2021). The medium of instruction in Bangladeshi higher education institutions: Bangla, English, or both? Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 1-15. doi:10.1080/15348458.2020.1871353 Macaro, E. (2021). The increasing use of English medium instruction in higher education. In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of world Englishes (pp. 508-522). London; New York: Routledge. Marton, F., Tsui, A. B. (2004). Classroom discourse and the space of learning. London: Routledge. Mohan, B. A. (1979). Relating language teaching and content teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 171-182. Rahman, M. M., Singh, M. K. M., & Karim, A. (2020). Distinctive medium of instruction ideologies in public and private universities in Bangladesh. Asian Englishes, 22(2), 125-142. Richards, J. C., & Pun, J. (2021). A typology of English-medium instruction. RELC Journal. doi:10.1177/0033688220968584 Wannagat, U. (2007). Learning through L2–content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and English as medium of instruction (EMI). International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 10(5), 663-682.
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