English Medium Instruction Methodology with Regard to International Education

Abstract

The paper presents an attempt to articulate the link between the notions of «English Medium Instruction», «International Education», «Constructive Alignment», «Constructively Aligned Teaching» as some of the tools for internationalization within higher educational context. The focus of empirical research is centered around the following critical analysis issues: the approach with regard to English Medium Instruction in higher education sector (the question of implementation vs the niveu of research); methodological challenges presented by English Medium Instruction research; Constructive Alignment methodology as the one based on Intended Learning Outcomes principle in international teaching-learning process. The collected data have demonstrated that international teaching through English Medium Instruction can be currently viewed as a cognitive load-based pedagogy widely used in many European and Asian countries as a strategic initiative in institutional internationalization. Its most obvious manifestation is constructive alignment technique that that is rotating around the key milestone, which is, in a constructively aligned system, all components (intended learning outcomes, teaching/learning activities, assessment tasks, etc.) support each other and are based on the usage of English as the main medium of academic (in-class) instruction. The performed analysis suggests the following key insight: English Medium Instruction methodology for international education presupposes professional development of academic staff based on problem-centered teaching-learning process.