Volume 14, Issue 6

English in Chinese higher education has shifted from being taught as a foreign language alongside other disciplinary-focussed courses to becoming an important medium of instruction used for learning and teaching non-language related academic subjects. While using English medium instruction (EMI) seems a natural and neutral academic exercise, the switch has muddied the water of EMI implementation and caused a number of social and academic issues for both students and lecturers. These problems include unfair promotion opportunities, unequal access to EMI classes, inadequate learning outcomes, and poor teaching quality. This special issue builds on past and current EMI work that explores issues related to EMI implementation in Chinese higher education institutions and in classrooms. Through the selection of several empirical papers, the special issue shines light on current knowledge, policies and practices of EMI in China to pave the way for research-informed recommendations.

In 2001, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China issued guidelines to promote the quality of higher education and to advocate the expansion of the use of English (Ministry of Education (MoE). 2001. Guanyu jiaqiang gaodeng xuexiao benke jiaoxue gongzuo tigao jiaoxue zhiliang de ruogan yijian [Guidelines for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Teaching at Higher Education Institutions]. Available at: http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfifiles/business/htmlfifiles/moe/moe_309/200412/4682.html). This paper reviews empirical studies in English and Chinese on EMI in Chinese higher education published from 2001 to 2019, during the last two decades since these guidelines were released. The review contributes to the field of EMI by documenting, analysing and synthesising empirical evidence and by situating EMI studies in China in the global trends of EMI research. The review aims to give an overview of studies targeted at both global and local audiences, therefore, publications in both English and Chinese were included. To select the Chinese articles the core journals indexed by CNKI were searched, and for the English articles, we used ERIC, IBSS, SCOPUS and WOS databases. After excluding theoretically oriented studies, literature reviews and commentaries, 42 articles remained. The in-depth analysis revealed that the main topics of these studies included the student perception, implementation and educational practices, and the role of language. We conclude that in general there are insufficient empirical studies, especially about EMI teachers’ perspectives to inform policies and practices at the micro, meso and macro level. Based on the findings, directions for further research are identified and recommendations for methodological approaches for future studies are also made.

Since their implementation in China’s tertiary education system two decades ago, EMI programmes have been reported largely less successful and more problematic than envisioned. Although portrayed as killing two birds with one stone , whereby both subject content learning and English language proficiency can be achieved in the same classroom, EMI has in reality been revealed to present a series of thorny problems, from teaching quality to learning achievements, from teachers’ insufficient language proficiency to students’ unsatisfactory academic outcomes. This paper addresses one of the critical issues in EMI implementation: what teachers need in order to bring about successful language learning as well as adequate subject content learning. Data sources include a questionnaire collected from different disciplinary programmes across universities in China ( n  = 158), and interviews of nine lecturers from both key and non-key universities. The results suggest that the needs of these EMI lecturers cover a variety of areas, including institutional support as well as needs for professional and pedagogical training. Our findings indicate that there are similarities and differences in teacher needs between key and non-key universities with regard to institutional support and training programmes. The findings suggest that epistemic environments as well as goal-oriented pedagogical activities and adequate discourse strategies are necessary to enhance the learning experience of the students, facilitate the integration of content and language learning, and empower teachers and students to identify the best classroom practices. The needs analysis is instrumental for developing both in-service and pre-service training programmes for EMI implementation in higher education and crucial if the goal of ‘ killing of two birds with one stone ’ is to be achieved.

The growth of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education in China over the past two decades has been promoted via implicit and explicit policies that aim to incentivise activities associated with the creation of English-taught courses and programs. This study investigates the components of such incentivisation schemes. It also explores how incentivisation policies are being implemented by policy arbiters, EMI programme directors, and EMI teachers. Data were collected from two sources: 93 institutional policy documents on EMI provision collected from 63 Chinese universities, and 26 interviews with senior university staff at a selection of eight Chinese universities. Results revealed that incentivisation policies focused on increased workload weighting for EMI courses, greater access to career development opportunities for teachers, increased monetary rewards, and dedicated financial support for creating and delivering courses. A comparison of policy and practice revealed areas of policy misfires and misalignments. EMI teachers considered the workload incentives insufficient and were not primarily motivated by financial rewards, but rather chose to teach in English for professional, academic, and personal intrinsic rewards; many viewed EMI at the core of their teacher-researcher academic identities. The paper concludes with recommendations to better align incentivisation policies with the driving forces attached to EMI in China.

A recent interest in English Medium Instruction (EMI) has led to the flourishing of studies that examine motivation in EMI classrooms. Some of these studies tend to compare language learning motivation of students who are and are not enrolled in EMI programmes (see e.g. Doiz, Aintzane, David Lasagabaster & Juan Manuel Sierra. 2014. CLIL and motivation: The effect of individual and contextual variables. The Language Learning Journal 42(2). 209–224; Sylvén, Liss Kerstin & Amy S. Thompson. 2015. Language learning motivation and CLIL: Is there a connection? Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education 3(1). 28–50), showing that EMI learners are typically more motivated than their peers in non-EMI contexts. This has led to the common perception that learners enrol in EMI primarily to improve their English. Yet, there is a dearth of comprehensive studies exploring learners’ reasons behind their enrolment in EMI programmes and how these change throughout their studies. To address this gap, 247 university students from a range of universities across China filled in the questionnaire, which included scales pertaining to reasons for choosing an EMI programme. The data were analysed in SPSS. The results show that enhanced future job opportunities, opportunities for contact with an international community as well as potential gains in learning content and language specific vocabulary are the most strongly endorsed drivers that motivate EMI students to undertake their studies in English. They also tend to pursue their ideal visions of themselves as bilingual professionals and derive pleasure from EMI classes. To a lesser extent, students are motivated by what is expected of them and the actual pedagogy in the language classroom. Their motivation tends to stay stable over their years of study. However, the survey also revealed that not all students are equally motivated and resolved to continue with EMI studies. The findings highlight that, whereas students tend to be strongly motivated, there is a potential to improve the delivery of EMI courses.

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.

This paper takes a look at English medium instruction (EMI) in Chinese higher education, offers comments on the five articles included in this special issue, identifies challenges and conundrums in EMI, and invites further research on the processes and products of EMI in the Chinese context.

In an era of transnational migration, growing numbers of students who migrate and live transnationally are entering US schools. However, there has been little research exploring the transnationalism of diverse groups of migrant students and their construction of belonging, citizenship, and identity. To address this gap, this article examines Korean migrant youth’s transnationalism and their sensemaking of national, cultural, linguistic belonging. In addition, the investigation encompasses the intragroup diversities among the Korean migrant students and the ways that their distinctive immigrant histories, educational trajectories, and language use impact their construction of identities. The findings indicate diverse conceptualizations of national belonging and citizenship held by contemporary migrant youth, varied levels of transnationalism, and a scarcity of teaching and learning about the changing nature of citizenship in school. This study suggests that migrant youth can be a great resource for learning about globalization and its impact on people’s lives and identities.

The computer and online technology world continues to evolve rapidly, with vast improvements in new devices such as smartphones. With these changes, scholarly attention to the impact of mobile technology on literacy development, especially self-based language learning and practice, has also increased. This “virtual space” can create a meaningful motivation for learning and may offer a small yet pertinent support to literacy practices in transnational migrant contexts. The research questions that guided this study were (1) what are the unique mobile literacy practices that Korean teenagers in the US engage in? And (2) how do Korean teenagers in the US reflect upon their local integration and identities through mobile devices? This study draws from new literacies and Norton’s theory of investment and identity. The primary data are semi-structured interviews collected over a three-month period and were analyzed using constant comparison. Findings show that immigrant teenagers’ continued language practices involve their preferable transnational affiliation on social media. Furthermore, findings suggest that participants’ intention to use mobile phones sometimes masks their insecure personality to help them assimilate into a community to which they wish to belong. A better understanding of mobile literacy practices in transnational migrant contexts offers insights for language teachers and educators in the US.

The importance of multilingual use for the overall personal and educational development of transnational population is well documented, and many scholars have supported that language relates to identity. Given that adolescence is a critical period of identity construction, it is crucial to understand how transnational youth construct their transnational identity in adolescence, bordering across multiple languages and cultures in their everyday lives. Therefore, the current study examines the language and identity of one Korean transnational adolescent who lives with her family in the U.S. The purpose of this study is to explore how one Korean-American transnational adolescent youth navigates her identities utilizing her diverse linguistic and cultural repertoires in a range of contextual spaces. This qualitative case study collected semi-structured interview data to explore the following research questions: 1) How does a second generation Korean American transnational adolescent self-identify? and 2) How is her identity interconnected with her linguistic and cultural investment? This current study found that the participant has sites of specific identities as Korean or American: three distinct contexts of family, school, and community. In addition, the findings showed that the participant’s identity is related to her linguistic and cultural investment in transnational contexts.

There are growing populations of Korean children who studied abroad in the English as a second language (ESL) context and had to return to Korea for various reasons before reaching college age. These returnees are concerned about how to maintain (or improve) their English proficiency in the EFL (English as a foreign language) context. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate two Korean-English bilinguals who recently returned to Korea after learning English in the US for more than four years. The research questions were as follows: 1) How do Korean returnees perceive the change of learning status as Korean-English bilinguals in the US and Korea, and 2) What motivated Korean returnees to sustain their English proficiency while acquiring academic literacy in Korean? By using the case study method, an extensive and in-depth description of two Korean returnees’ English language learning experiences was provided. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observation. The analysis showed that the switch from ESL to EFL learning environments, which includes the change of language, culture, and social contexts, influenced how Korean returnees maintain/improve their English proficiency, specifically with their language learning strategies (LLS).

Drawing on translanguaging and a translingual approach to literacy, this case study seeks to examine why and how a trilingual child engaged with writing across two heritage languages (HLs), Korean and Farsi, as well as English over 5 years. I enter the study by taking on the role of a motherscholar to address the research question “What, how, and why my son, a trilingual child, wrote across three scripts at home?” The analysis of a large number of writing samples across the three scripts as well as video and audio data sources collected at home showed the child’s complex navigation and orchestration of his lived experiences, interests, and social relationships across scripts with a clear audience in mind over developmental stages. He engaged in writing at home to reconstruct his literate world, to express interests and lived experiences, and to express discontent in required tasks in a playful manner. The study has important implications for caregivers and teachers of multilinguals as well as for policy makers who must create more opportunities for multilingual children to draw on languages and scripts they use on a daily basis in school learning.

Heritage language (HL) learning has been known as essential to transmission of cultural values, familial and social bonds, and children’s potential academic and professional advancement. Nevertheless, social pressures of linguistic assimilation have made HL education difficult for many migrant families across the globe. HL transmission to younger generations is particularly challenging in damunhwa [multiculture] families in South Korea since the ethnolinguistic minority women from developing countries are pressured to acquire Korean rapidly and use Korean only with their children for faster integration to the mainstream society and to avoid discrimination in this traditionally homogenous country. Our qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews of 9 migrant mothers with various geographical, socioeconomic, and education backgrounds reveals that they exerted their agency in navigating and negotiating their available capital and the constraining language ideologies to promote HL education for their children in Korean-only spaces. Our analysis also depicts the diversity and complexity in the manifestations of the migrant women’s maneuvers for HL education within their specific circumstances with multiple intersecting factors. Our findings will contribute to wider HL education research and practices as we strive to make fertile ground for HL education for all migrant families and children around the globe, especially for those who speak socially stigmatized languages.

Textbooks are sociocultural materials, reflecting political decisions, educational beliefs and priorities, cultural realities and language policies. As part of a larger ethnographic study which investigated the multilingual socialization of foreign wives in South Korea, I present the nature and extent of the gender-making process through an analysis of Korean textbooks for recently arrived female marriage migrants, which provides an understanding of the extent to which gender and race are ingrained in shaping linguistic nationalism in globalized times. I first introduce a four-stage life cycle designed by the South Korean government and situate Korean textbook series called Korean Language Learning With International Marriage Migrant Women as an intervention used early in the settlement period for foreign mothers. Then, I analyze the textual and multimodal representation of family identities taken from six textbook series, focusing on lessons, dialogues, and characters that are presented. The results of the study demonstrate how the state presents its attempts to transform foreign wives into a new type of ‘wise mother good wife’ in the globalized, multilingual world. I demonstrate the ways in which state-driven gender identity production is not simply (re)producing the gender divide but also aligned with nation-making processes that are facing challenges in these globalized times.