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Enhancing equity in South Korean EMI higher education through translanguaging

  • Dylan G. Williams EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 6, 2024
Journal of English as a Lingua Franca
From the journal Journal of English as a Lingua Franca Volume 13 Issue 1

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 capitalising on opportunities. 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.

초록

이 논문은 한국의 고등 교육 EMI (English Medium Instruction) 학습 환경에서 더 많은 형평성을 기르기 위해 미래 정책에 트랜스랭귀징 교육 매체를 수용해야 한다고 주장합니다. 먼저, 현재 한국의EMI 과제에 대한 개요를 보여준 다음 대규모 연구 데이터를 기반으로 이러한 문제를 해결하는 데 사용된 트랜스랭귀징 관행의 예를 제시합니다. 이 연구는 10 명의 한국 대학생들이 겪는 EMI 경험에서 트랜스랭귀징이 전공 과목에 적용 시 어떤 영향을 미치는지에 대한 인식을 분석했습니다. 연구 결과는 특정 EMI 상황에서 L1(한국어) 또는 L2(영어) 시스템에 어포던스의 존재가 학생들의 학습을 제한할 수도 있음을 나타냅니다. 이것은 트랜스랭귀징 능력이 현재 EMI 정책의 명백한 부분이 아니기 때문에 학생들이 기회를 활용하는 것을 막을 수도 있습니다. 이 논문은 또한 트랜스랭귀징이 이러한 제약을 극복하기 위해 실행 가능하고 공평하며 사회적으로 공정한 교육으로 봐야 한다고 주장합니다. 학생들에게 학습하고 있는 사회 구조를 비판하고 변화시키는 데 참여할 수 있는 기회가 어떻게 주어 질 수 있는지, 정의로운 트렌스랭귀징 미래를 공동으로 상상할 수 있는 가에 대한 권고 사항을 서술하였습니다. 추가로 EMI 정책에서 원어민 단일 언어 이데올로기에 관해 이의를 제기할 필요성을 주장함으로써 결론을 맺습니다.

Keywords: affordance; EMI; internationalisation; policy; social justice; translanguaging
키워드: 국제화; 트랜스랭귀징; 사회 정의; EMI; 정책; 어포던스
Corresponding author: Dylan G. Williams, School of Languages, Linguistics, and Film, Queen Mary, University of London, Office: 1.29 Bancroft Building, 27 Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK, E-mail:

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Published Online: 2024-08-06
Published in Print: 2024-05-27

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Introduction
  3. Introduction
  4. Articles
  5. Linguistic justice in English-medium instruction contexts: a theoretical argument
  6. The (in)justice of EMI: a critical discourse analysis of two key stakeholders’ views on the Polytechnic University of Milan court case
  7. “English is the natural language of science”: discourses and ideologies concerning EMI in two Brazilian universities
  8. English Medium Instruction or Exploitative Models of Income? International students’ experiences of EMI by default at an Australian university
  9. Our gateway is your gatekeeper: benefits and constraints of EMI for different participants in Japanese ELF contexts
  10. Enhancing equity in South Korean EMI higher education through translanguaging
  11. Impact of English proficiency and self-efficacy on EMI content learning: a longitudinal study in Taiwan
  12. EMI programmes in Vietnamese higher education: a case study of translanguaging practices for inclusive education
  13. Book Reviews
  14. Cogo, Alessia, Graham Crookes and Sávio Siqueira: English for a Critical Mind: Language Pedagogy for Social Justice
  15. Mocanu, Vasilica: Language Learning in Study Abroad: Social, Cultural, and Identity-Related Factors
  16. Alves, Ubiratã Kickhöfel & Jeniffer Imaregna Alcantara de Albuquerque: Second language pronunciation: Different approaches to teaching and training (Studies on Language Acquisition 64)
  17. Corrigendum
  18. Corrigendum to: Self-presentation as an ELF user in social media: an analysis of Japanese young adults’ online language practices
https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2024-2012
Keywords for this article
affordance; EMI; internationalisation; policy; social justice; translanguaging

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Introduction
  3. Introduction
  4. Articles
  5. Linguistic justice in English-medium instruction contexts: a theoretical argument
  6. The (in)justice of EMI: a critical discourse analysis of two key stakeholders’ views on the Polytechnic University of Milan court case
  7. “English is the natural language of science”: discourses and ideologies concerning EMI in two Brazilian universities
  8. English Medium Instruction or Exploitative Models of Income? International students’ experiences of EMI by default at an Australian university
  9. Our gateway is your gatekeeper: benefits and constraints of EMI for different participants in Japanese ELF contexts
  10. Enhancing equity in South Korean EMI higher education through translanguaging
  11. Impact of English proficiency and self-efficacy on EMI content learning: a longitudinal study in Taiwan
  12. EMI programmes in Vietnamese higher education: a case study of translanguaging practices for inclusive education
  13. Book Reviews
  14. Cogo, Alessia, Graham Crookes and Sávio Siqueira: English for a Critical Mind: Language Pedagogy for Social Justice
  15. Mocanu, Vasilica: Language Learning in Study Abroad: Social, Cultural, and Identity-Related Factors
  16. Alves, Ubiratã Kickhöfel & Jeniffer Imaregna Alcantara de Albuquerque: Second language pronunciation: Different approaches to teaching and training (Studies on Language Acquisition 64)
  17. Corrigendum
  18. Corrigendum to: Self-presentation as an ELF user in social media: an analysis of Japanese young adults’ online language practices
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