Beatrice Zuaro, Dogan Yuksel, Peter Wingrove, Marion Nao, Anna K. Hultgren
{"title":"The (in)justice of EMI: a critical discourse analysis of two key stakeholders’ views on the Polytechnic University of Milan court case","authors":"Beatrice Zuaro, Dogan Yuksel, Peter Wingrove, Marion Nao, Anna K. Hultgren","doi":"10.1515/jelf-2024-2002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2024-2002","url":null,"abstract":"While English-medium Instruction (EMI) continues to be appealing for various stakeholders, it also raises some epistemological and ethical concerns, which have in the past found expression in polarized debates. A well-known example is the 2012 Milan court case, in which the academic staff sued the Polytechnic University of Milan over its attempt to promote an EMI-only policy. Now almost ten years after the case, the motivations of the key proponents and opponents of the policy are yet to be explored in depth. In order to explain how different interpretations of EMI could result in such unreconcilable positions, in this paper we adopt a new analytical angle, focusing on two <jats:italic>elite participants</jats:italic>: the rector who promoted the policy and the lawyer (also a faculty member) who represented the lecturers in court. Via a critical discourse analysis of interviews to these participants, we aim to unveil how different stakeholders from the same context frame EMI in relation to ideas of justice/injustice. Results indicate that, despite comparable personal commitment to education and similar understandings of language/power interactions, the participants evaluate English against different frames of reference (i.e. a horizon of globalized education, versus the traditional national understanding of the goals of education). This leads to diametrically opposite evaluations of the growing presence of English in higher education.","PeriodicalId":44449,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English as a Lingua Franca","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141938612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"EMI programmes in Vietnamese higher education: a case study of translanguaging practices for inclusive education","authors":"Phuong Le Hoang Ngo","doi":"10.1515/jelf-2024-2008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2024-2008","url":null,"abstract":"Previous studies have discussed stakeholders’ perceptions of using first language in English-medium instruction (EMI), but only a few have examined classroom practices in Vietnam. Against this backdrop, this article focuses on lecturers’ translanguaging practices in an EMI programme where all the lecturers and students were Vietnamese. More specifically, it employs the conceptual framework of ROAD-MAPPING, proposed by Dafouz and Smit (“The ROAD-MAPPING framework: Taking stock and paving future directions for English-medium research”, in Emma Dafouz and Ute Smit (eds.), <jats:italic>Researching English-medium higher education: Diverse applications and critical evaluations of the ROAD-MAPPING framework</jats:italic>, 1–19. London: Routledge, 2016), to see if there was substantial evidence of a constructive co-existence between English and Vietnamese – the first language – in this EMI programme. The findings suggest that under the lecturers’ and students’ agency, the two languages were distributed across various domains of classroom practices to benefit students’ learning of content knowledge. In teacher talk, English and Vietnamese have different functions to support the process of knowledge co-construction. The study implies that the current monolingual orientation promoted in many top-down EMI policies should be reconsidered, given the linguistic diversity of higher education settings. In other words, EMI should be promoted as an educational environment where students can access their linguistic repertoires and develop their academic knowledge bi/multilingually. Translanguaging, therefore, should be acknowledged as an inclusive pedagogical practice.","PeriodicalId":44449,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English as a Lingua Franca","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141938605","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Our gateway is your gatekeeper: benefits and constraints of EMI for different participants in Japanese ELF contexts","authors":"Kumiko Murata, Masakazu Iino","doi":"10.1515/jelf-2024-2009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2024-2009","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores the interconnectedness of gatekeeper and gateway roles the same English-medium instruction (EMI) policy plays for different student populations at different times. The research site is located in an EMI programme at a Japanese university, where, for international students, EMI opens a gateway to the university, Japanese ability not being required at the entry point, whereas the same policy plays a gatekeeping role for Japanese students, a high English proficiency level based on native English speaker (NES) norms being required. However, for international students with plans to work for Japanese companies after graduation, their low Japanese ability starts playing a gatekeeping role for their future career, contrary to the situation at the outset. In contrast, Japanese students, who initially struggle to get used to EMI, after a few years, become empowered by their ability to use English as a lingua franca (ELF), which becomes a gateway to new career opportunities. Thus, the same EMI policy could play opposing roles for different student populations at different times, a gateway turning gatekeeper for one group, while for another, the initial gatekeeper turning gateway after some time. The exploration is mostly based on our interview data with EMI graduates at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Implications for language policy will also be discussed.","PeriodicalId":44449,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English as a Lingua Franca","volume":"93 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141938608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"English Medium Instruction or Exploitative Models of Income? International students’ experiences of EMI by default at an Australian university","authors":"Carly Steele, Ana Tankosić, Sender Dovchin","doi":"10.1515/jelf-2024-2011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2024-2011","url":null,"abstract":"International education is Australia’s largest services export, and third largest export altogether, generating between $22 billion and $40 billion per year over the last few years. Higher education represents half of this ‘market’ with over 25 % of students being from overseas. Despite the important role that international students play in the fabric of Australian society and specifically in higher education, the findings from our linguistic ethnographic study of international students at an Australian university showed that the English language learning needs of these students were frequently unmet. Using James Scott’s theory of official and hidden transcripts, we reveal that students reported feeling that their “English is not good enough” and assumed personal ‘(ir)responsibility’ for this outcome. In this broad English Medium Instruction (EMI) context, where English is not the first language, but it is used as the language of instruction and as the lingua franca amongst international students, English-dominant perspectives acted to marginalise international students, impacting their academic performance and confidence for social networking. In this paper, we describe the shifts in higher educational policy in Australia over the last few decades to provide context to the current neoliberal educational climate for international students. We draw on principles of social justice to examine the present-day system and argue that Australian universities need to shift from an EMI <jats:italic>by default</jats:italic> model to a genuine EMI offering.","PeriodicalId":44449,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English as a Lingua Franca","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141938606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Enhancing equity in South Korean EMI higher education through translanguaging","authors":"Dylan G. Williams","doi":"10.1515/jelf-2024-2012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2024-2012","url":null,"abstract":"This paper argues that to foster more equity in a South Korean Higher Education English Medium Instruction (EMI) learning environment, future policies should embrace a translanguaging medium of instruction. First, the paper provides an overview of current South Korean EMI challenges and then by drawing on data of a larger study presents examples of translanguaging practices used to offset these challenges. The study explored ten South Korean University students’ perceptions of how translanguaging affects access to subject content in their EMI experiences. The findings point to the presence of affordances in the L1 or L2 system in certain EMI situations, which may constrain students’ learning. This is because a translanguaging competence is not an overt part of current EMI policy which may prevent students from <jats:italic>capitalising on opportunities</jats:italic>. This paper further argues that translanguaging should be viewed as a viable, equitable, socially just medium of instruction to overcome these constraints. Recommendations are made for how students can be given the opportunity to be involved in critiquing and changing the social structures in which they learn, to co-imagine a socially just translanguaging future. The paper concludes by further arguing that the native speaker monolingual ideology needs to be challenged in EMI policy.","PeriodicalId":44449,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English as a Lingua Franca","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141938609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alessia Cogo, Telma Gimenez, Luciana Cabrini Calvo, Michele El Kadri
{"title":"“English is the natural language of science”: discourses and ideologies concerning EMI in two Brazilian universities","authors":"Alessia Cogo, Telma Gimenez, Luciana Cabrini Calvo, Michele El Kadri","doi":"10.1515/jelf-2024-2007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2024-2007","url":null,"abstract":"With the introduction of English medium instruction (EMI) as one strategy for the internationalization of universities, more and more lecturers in Brazil choose the option of running their courses in EMI, while higher education courses are normally taught in Portuguese, the official language. In this study, we aim to explore the discourses and ideologies underlying the introduction and choice of EMI in two Brazilian higher education institutions. We conducted interviews with lecturers and focus group discussions with lecturers and students at two state universities in Paraná, Brazil. The results show a tendency to see English as “the natural language of science” which is underpinned by various ideological positions in relation to the role of English in academia, such as monolingual, correctness and native speakerism ideologies. At the same time, the data shows resistance to English from a linguistic justice perspective, and portrays university lecturers as engaging in a balancing act to facilitate inclusion and still offer international opportunities to students in Brazil.","PeriodicalId":44449,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English as a Lingua Franca","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141938611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Linguistic justice in English-medium instruction contexts: a theoretical argument","authors":"Josep Soler","doi":"10.1515/jelf-2024-2003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2024-2003","url":null,"abstract":"This article looks at English-medium instruction (EMI) contexts in higher education from a linguistic justice perspective and offers a theoretical argument to discuss the potential for EMI to be defended as a positive and valuable phenomenon, beyond economic and competitive arguments. In the final keynote panel at the 2022 ICLHE conference, Philippe Van Parijs pondered how EMI teachers might be seen: either as killers, traitors, sellers, saviours, upgraders, or liberators. After providing characterisations for each of these labels, Van Parijs suggested that EMI teachers should be better conceived of as civilisers, not in a missionary sense of civilising the barbarian, but in the Aristotelian meaning of civic virtue, of citizens being part of public life, actively involved in discussion of public affairs. This seems to imply a specific view of English, one that almost naturally equates the language to democratic progress and consensus. In the article, I challenge this assumption and suggest that for English to be a democratising agent and EMI truly a gate-opener to higher education, emphasis needs to be placed on listening subject positions and regimes of uptake as key aspects of democratic deliberation and key elements to overcome prejudiced views of accents and voices.","PeriodicalId":44449,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English as a Lingua Franca","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141938604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Preparing university students for multilingual EMI contexts in Türkiye","authors":"Yavuz Kurt, Yasemin Bayyurt","doi":"10.1515/jelf-2023-2015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2023-2015","url":null,"abstract":"English-medium instruction (EMI) is a growing phenomenon among universities in Türkiye, with higher numbers of local and international students registering for programs offered in English each year. This situation suggests that students should get prepared for multilingual contexts before they start taking faculty courses; however, institutions usually ignore this when offering linguistic support to students. This study explored the potential ways of adopting a more inclusive approach to language education offered to students preparing for EMI. The in-class teaching practices of language instructors and the views of students who attended these lessons were explored through classroom observations and focus-group interviews. The results revealed that the instructors preferred several different methods to modify their teaching in English-as-a-lingua-franca-compatible ways, and students found their instructors’ practices useful from multiple aspects for their future English-medium courses. The findings imply revisions on the nature of the language education offered in English preparatory schools in Türkiye.","PeriodicalId":44449,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English as a Lingua Franca","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139460696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Revisiting language teacher education in an ELF aware perspective: responses to innovations","authors":"Lucilla Lopriore","doi":"10.1515/jelf-2023-2008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2023-2008","url":null,"abstract":"Teachers’ and teacher educators’ individual theories, attitudes and beliefs underlying their daily practice, are often challenged by sociolinguistic changes, curricular innovations, or new language policies that may often trigger teachers’ resistance to change, particularly when they are required to adapt and revisit their teaching practices. In many European countries recent migration flows have modified the countries language landscapes; their school population is now growingly plurilingual and with different learning and language needs. In their out-of-school experiences, learners are more and more exposed to English through social media and to non-native speakers’ English (ELF), aspects not integrated yet in local language policies, nor in teacher education programs. It is thus important to design pre- and in-service teacher education programs aimed at sensitizing language and subject teachers to these new scenarios, using reflective practice approaches in multilingual contexts. These contexts require English language teachers, and teachers who use English in different fields such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) or English Medium of Instruction (EMI), to reconsider their personal assumptions and beliefs, and to develop new competences that would incorporate the powerful reflective framework provided by ELF-awareness. The ELF-aware perspective had been adopted in recent courses for English teachers carried out in Italy, as the ENRICH CPD course, and in the CLIL courses for content teachers. The aim of this contribution is to present and discuss findings of two research studies carried out within the above-mentioned courses that were meant to make teachers aware of new instantiations of English through a reflective practice approach such as the ELF-aware approach, and to sustain their professional development as well as their agency. This paper is mostly related to the lessons learnt from the findings from teachers’ responses to course innovations and their agency development during these courses.","PeriodicalId":44449,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English as a Lingua Franca","volume":"262 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139460563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"English as the Academic Lingua Franca (ELFA) for research publication purposes: voices from Iraq and Turkey","authors":"Sami Alhasnawi, Hacer Hande Uysal, Batuhan Selvi","doi":"10.1515/jelf-2023-2014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2023-2014","url":null,"abstract":"This paper contributes to the recently increasing literature on the role of English as the Academic Lingua Franca (ELFA) in international research publications, and the potential pros and cons this may entail for non-Anglophone scholars in different contexts. While exploring Turkish and Iraqi scholars’ attitudes to English for research publication purposes (ERPP), their research writing challenges, and the strategies they use for successful publication, which are areas still lagging far behind in the current state of research, will be the main focus. Therefore, an online questionnaire was designed in this context to investigate the experience of academicians of different academic ranks across university disciplines in both Turkey and Iraq to address such a research gap. Findings are expected to enrich the field with respect to the presumed relationship between ELFA and ‘linguistic injustice/hegemony’, problems encountered by non-Anglophone scholars in different contexts, and their strategies for successful publication through English.","PeriodicalId":44449,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English as a Lingua Franca","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2024-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139460564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}