Internationalization at home : English-medium instruction practices at sino-foreign cooperative universities

English-medium-instruction (EMI), an emerging phenomenon brought about by the accelerating trend of internationalization in higher education, has become a well-established area of study during the past few years. Numerous studies have investigated various facets of EMI, including the ideology and policymaking behind it, as well as the implementation at the classroom levels in a variety of internationalized settings. The benefits of EMI to students' language acquisition and content understanding have been recognised by various studies (e.g., Tsang, and Li 2021), but it is widely recognised that engaging in EMI can be an intellectually and emotionally challenging experience for university students for different reasons. One contributing factor identified by several studies is the EMI teaching practices including the pedagogical approaches adopted by EMI teachers and the language proficiency of teachers. Several EMI scholars (e.g. Zhang and Pladevall-Ballester, 2022; Thompson et al. 2022) have set out to systematically investigate students’ perspectives towards EMI to better understand and address the challenges.This research, however, seeks to understand and address the issues and challenges of EMI teaching practice from the perspective of EMI teachers. Specifically, this study is an exploration of EMI teachers’ experiences and perceptions in the adoption of EMI for the achievement of internationalization at home (IaH) at two Sino-foreign Cooperative universities (SFCUs) in China. Research data were generated through semi-structured interviews with 20 EMI teachers from these two SFCUs and through classroom observations of two of the interviewees, using a qualitative approach within a constructivist paradigm.The findings showed that EMI teachers interviewed agreed that there are numerous areas for improvement in the implementation of EMI in China’s SFCUs, and each offered their ideas of tackling the challenges. They did, however, raise issues at various stage in the EMI implementation process and the different stakeholders involved in EMI practice. For instance, they shared their perspectives and experiences on EMI practice in relation to EMI teacher recruitment, professional learning, and pedagogical strategies. Moreover, they offered suggestions for enhancing the effectiveness of EMI from the viewpoints of EMI administrators, teachers and the recipients of EMI teaching, i.e. EMI students. One of the essential findings include the necessity for more stringent screening of EMI teacher candidates at the point of teacher recruitment, more in-service professional learning opportunities and more reasonable evaluation approaches for EMI teachers, in order to improve their teaching effectiveness. Another significant finding is that the mental stress caused by the EMI dual goals of acquiring subject content knowledge and improving English proficiency is not negligible. Such mental health problems may be exacerbated by the pandemic-related regulations in China during the Covid-19 period.In addition to this, some of the pedagogical accommodation strategies adopted by EMI teachers and the main challenges in achieving the dual goals of EMI as perceived by EMI teachers are also discussed in this research.According to the research, there are a number of improvements that should be made to successfully realize IaH using EMI. For example, adjustments are needed from the ideology embedded in China’s EMI policies to the enactment of EMI policies in China. Additionally, communication and collaboration between different EMI stakeholders should be maintained to ensure that EMI is effectively practiced and promoted at SFCUs and across higher education in China more broadly, so as to properly broaden students’ international perspectives, improve students’ language and subject knowledge, and achieve successful IaH in China.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

edd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral-pg

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Strathclyde

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Zhao, Helin

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Kirk, David, 1958-
• Huang, Alan

DOI

10.48730/q1s1-an92

Identifier

T16634

Author Identifier

201863616

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:strathclyde:4x51hj56d