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A translanguaging and trans-semiotizing perspective on subject teachers’ linguistic and pedagogical practices in EMI programme

  • Mingyue Michelle Gu

    Mingyue Michelle Gu is Associate Professor at the Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include: internalization in higher education, multilingualism and mobility, language policy and planning, and discourse analysis and theory. She received Research Excellence Award in 2017 and Young Researcher Award in 2015 at Chinese University of Hong Kong.

     EMAIL logo     , Chi-Kin John Lee

    Chi-Kin John Lee is Chair Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, UNESCO Chair in Regional Education Development and Lifelong Learning, Director of Centre for Religious and Spirituality Education, Vice President (Academic) and Provo at the Education University of Hong Kong. His recent co-edited book is European Didactics and Chinese Curriculum: Curriculum thoughts in Dialogue (with Kerry Kennedy, 2017, Routledge).

         and Tan Jin

    Tan Jin is an associate professor in the School of Foreign Languages at Sun Yat-sen University in China. His research interests include language testing and assessment as well as computer-assisted language learning. His research has appeared in Language Learning & Technology, Modern Language Journal and TESOL Quarterly.
Published/Copyright: April 27, 2022
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Applied Linguistics Review
From the journal Applied Linguistics Review Volume 14 Issue 6

Abstract

English as a medium of instruction (EMI), as a major agenda of language policy and planning and characterizing internationalization of higher education, has been increasingly adopted in global contexts. EMI teachers’ language and teaching practices in situated classroom contexts and the possible pedagogical challenges they encounter have not gained sufficient research attention in relation to the expansion of EMI. This qualitative study explored the experiences of nine EMI teachers from different disciplines in Chinese universities through investigating their linguistic and pedagogical practices in EMI teaching, the challenges they encounter, and how they co-ordinate semiotic resources with the affordance of the EMI context. The findings suggested that the teachers a) achieved professional development when developing different teaching materials for and perspectives on the same phenomenon to facilitate the understanding of students from various backgrounds; b) co-ordinated semiotic resources with an affordance of the EMI context to facilitate teaching, with the understanding that language is not merely language, but also a factor influencing knowledge construction, a lens for interpreting knowledge, and a part of the event or issue; and, c) attempted to integrate content/language in learning, despite lacking CLIL-related professional training. The implications for language policy and EMI programme development are discussed.

Keywords: CLIL; EMI; higher education; translanguaging; trans-semiotizing
Corresponding author: Mingyue Michelle Gu, Faculty of Humanities, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, E-mail:

About the authors

Mingyue Michelle Gu

Mingyue Michelle Gu is Associate Professor at the Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include: internalization in higher education, multilingualism and mobility, language policy and planning, and discourse analysis and theory. She received Research Excellence Award in 2017 and Young Researcher Award in 2015 at Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Chi-Kin John Lee

Chi-Kin John Lee is Chair Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, UNESCO Chair in Regional Education Development and Lifelong Learning, Director of Centre for Religious and Spirituality Education, Vice President (Academic) and Provo at the Education University of Hong Kong. His recent co-edited book is European Didactics and Chinese Curriculum: Curriculum thoughts in Dialogue (with Kerry Kennedy, 2017, Routledge).

Tan Jin

Tan Jin is an associate professor in the School of Foreign Languages at Sun Yat-sen University in China. His research interests include language testing and assessment as well as computer-assisted language learning. His research has appeared in Language Learning & Technology, Modern Language Journal and TESOL Quarterly.

  1. Research funding: This study is funded by a General Research Fund (reference number: 14620117) from RGC of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, and Research Cluster Fund Scheme project (Project Number: RG76/2019-2020R) from the Education University of Hong Kong.

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Received: 2022-03-25
Accepted: 2022-03-26
Published Online: 2022-04-27
Published in Print: 2023-11-27

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Special Issue 1: EMI in Chinese higher education; Guest Editor: McKinley, Rose and Curdt-Christiansen
  3. Editorial
  4. EMI in Chinese higher education: the Muddy water of ‘Englishisation’
  5. Review Article
  6. English medium of instruction in Chinese higher education: a systematic mapping review of empirical research
  7. Research Articles
  8. How to kill two birds with one stone: EMI teachers’ needs in higher education in China
  9. The incentivisation of English medium instruction in Chinese universities: policy misfires and misalignments
  10. Motivations to enrol in EMI programmes in China: an exploratory study
  11. A translanguaging and trans-semiotizing perspective on subject teachers’ linguistic and pedagogical practices in EMI programme
  12. Commentary
  13. English as a medium of instruction in Chinese higher education: looking back and looking forward
  14. Special Issue 2: The dynamics of Korean transnational families, language practices, and social belongings; Guest Editor: Hakyoon Lee
  15. Editorial
  16. Editorial: The dynamics of Korean transnational families, language practices, and social belongings
  17. Articles
  18. National belonging and citizenship in an era of globalization and transnational migration: Korean migrant youth in the United States
  19. Korean immigrant teenagers’ literacy practices and identity negotiation through smartphone use
  20. Language and identity of a Korean transnational youth in the U.S.
  21. Adolescent Korean returnees’ perceptions of the change of language learning contexts as bilingual learners
  22. From trilingualism to triliteracy: a trilingual child learning to write simultaneously in Korean, Farsi, and English
  23. Migrant mothers’ heritage language education in South Korea: complex and agentive navigation of capital and language ideologies
  24. Designing new Korean mothers, daughters-in-law, and wives: an analysis of Korean textbooks for newly arrived marriage migrants in South Korea
https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2022-0036
Keywords for this article
CLIL; EMI; higher education; translanguaging; trans-semiotizing

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Special Issue 1: EMI in Chinese higher education; Guest Editor: McKinley, Rose and Curdt-Christiansen
  3. Editorial
  4. EMI in Chinese higher education: the Muddy water of ‘Englishisation’
  5. Review Article
  6. English medium of instruction in Chinese higher education: a systematic mapping review of empirical research
  7. Research Articles
  8. How to kill two birds with one stone: EMI teachers’ needs in higher education in China
  9. The incentivisation of English medium instruction in Chinese universities: policy misfires and misalignments
  10. Motivations to enrol in EMI programmes in China: an exploratory study
  11. A translanguaging and trans-semiotizing perspective on subject teachers’ linguistic and pedagogical practices in EMI programme
  12. Commentary
  13. English as a medium of instruction in Chinese higher education: looking back and looking forward
  14. Special Issue 2: The dynamics of Korean transnational families, language practices, and social belongings; Guest Editor: Hakyoon Lee
  15. Editorial
  16. Editorial: The dynamics of Korean transnational families, language practices, and social belongings
  17. Articles
  18. National belonging and citizenship in an era of globalization and transnational migration: Korean migrant youth in the United States
  19. Korean immigrant teenagers’ literacy practices and identity negotiation through smartphone use
  20. Language and identity of a Korean transnational youth in the U.S.
  21. Adolescent Korean returnees’ perceptions of the change of language learning contexts as bilingual learners
  22. From trilingualism to triliteracy: a trilingual child learning to write simultaneously in Korean, Farsi, and English
  23. Migrant mothers’ heritage language education in South Korea: complex and agentive navigation of capital and language ideologies
  24. Designing new Korean mothers, daughters-in-law, and wives: an analysis of Korean textbooks for newly arrived marriage migrants in South Korea
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