English-Medium Instruction
11
Keith M. Graham and Zohreh R. Eslami
English-Medium Instruction (EMI) is defined by Macaro et al. (2017) as “the use of
the English language to teach academic subjects in countries or jurisdictions where
the first language of the majority of the population is not English” (Macaro et al.,
2017, p. 37). EMI is distinguished from other content-based approaches, such as
content and language integrated learning (CLIL), for having “no explicit English
language-related learning outcomes” (Airey, 2016, p. 73).
Very little is known about the effectiveness of EMI, neither for language nor
content outcomes. Studies that have compared EMI students to non-EMI students
have either found only higher receptive skills (Yang, 2015) or no difference (Lei &
Hu, 2014). Investigations of EMI content outcomes have been equally mixed,
finding either L1 instruction to be superior (Li, 2017) or no difference (Dafouz
et al., 2014; Joe & Lee, 2013).
While the empirical evidence of EMI effectiveness is limited, there is a growing
literature on instructor and student attitudes toward EMI. Attitudes of instructors are
generally positive toward EMI (Macaro et al., 2017). However, student attitudes are
more diverse based on a variety of variables (Graham & Eslami, 2019).
EMI is a phenomenon that has spread around the world (Dearden, 2015).
Although research on EMI has been increasing in recent years (Macaro et al.,
2017), it has not kept pace with EMI’s rapid growth. EMI is multi-dimensional with
many dimensions remaining left unexplored, therefore, providing rich opportunities
for researchers.
K. M. Graham Z. R. Eslami (&)
Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
e-mail: zeslami@[Link]
K. M. Graham
College of Teacher Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 59
H. Mohebbi and C. Coombe (eds.), Research Questions in Language
Education and Applied Linguistics, Springer Texts in Education,
[Link]
60 K. M. Graham and Z. R. Eslami
The Research Questions
1. How do the language outcomes of EMI students compare with non-EMI
students?
2. How do the content outcomes of EMI students compare with students studying
in their L1?
3. What prerequisite language ability is ideal for EMI instructors and students?
4. What teaching strategies help improve learning outcomes in EMI courses?
5. What are effective practices for training EMI instructors?
6. How does EMI differ between the various academic disciplines?
7. What are the attitudes toward EMI of various stakeholders?
8. What is the effect of EMI on local contexts?
9. How does EMI affect the identities of EMI instructors and students?
10. What role do other languages play (e.g., translanguaging) in EMI classrooms?
Suggested Resources
Macaro, E. (2018). English Medium Instruction. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford
University Press.
Macaro provides the most comprehensive overview of research on EMI to date.
EMI has been used along with other acronyms to describe teaching content through
English. The first chapter of this volume addresses this lack of consensus in ter-
minology. The second chapter reviews language policies guiding EMI in Europe,
Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Chapters three and four look in-depth at
instructors’ and students’ perceptions and beliefs about EMI. Chapter five asks two
important questions regarding the rapid spread of EMI: (1) Which English should
be taught? and (2) Who should teach in English? Chapter six examines the pros and
cons of EMI implementation, connecting to existing research studies. The next
three chapters take a narrower look into EMI classrooms, discussing classroom
interactions, teacher roles, and learner strategies. The book concludes with a revisit
to the drivers and cost-benefits of EMI as well as future directions.
Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D., & Sierra, J. M. (2013). English-medium instruction
at universities: Global challenges. Buffalo: Multilingual Matters.
This volume by Doiz, Lasagabaster, and Sierra critically examines EMI from a
variety of perspectives in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. Parts one and
two examine the expansion of EMI and the demands it places on stakeholders. Van
der Walt and Kidd suggest biliteracy practices as one means of lowering the
demand. Part three offers an examination of the threat of EMI in multilingual areas
of Hong Kong and Spain. Of particular concern is how English seems to be
crowding out local mother tongues. Part four extends the conversation about
bilingualism/multilingualism in EMI with a chapter examining international and
11 English-Medium Instruction 61
immigrant students in the U.S. and detrimental monolingual policies. The section
concludes with a chapter by Shohamy who outlines three issues with EMI:
(1) difficulty learning content through a foreign language, (2) the disadvantage of
minority students for whom English is a third language, and (3) assessment validity.
Fenton-Smith, B., Humphreys, P., & Walkinshaw, I. (2017). English medium
instruction in higher education in Asia-Pacific: From policy to pedagogy. Cham,
Switzerland: Springer.
Fenton-Smith, Humphreys, and Walkinshaw focuses exclusively on EMI in the
Asia-Pacific, offering case studies from a variety of countries. Part one focuses on
policy and implementation. A theme that emerges is a top-down policy imple-
mentation, which often lacks the appropriate planning. The section also showcases
countries with longer histories of EMI such as Pakistan and Singapore whose
implementations are connected more with politics and colonialization rather than
internationalization. The second section transitions to an examination of EMI
stakeholders, mainly instructors and students. The first few chapters of this section
examine instructor training and attitudes toward EMI and the second half transitions
to examining the multilingual practices within EMI. For those who take a broader
view of EMI as inclusive of international student instruction in Anglophone
countries such as Australia, this volume uniquely provides both justification for
such definitions as well as research in this area.
Zhao, J., & Dixon, L. Q. (2017). English-medium Instruction in Chinese uni-
versities: Perspectives, discourse and evaluation. New York: Routledge.
Whereas the preceding books on this reading list have looked at EMI in multiple
countries, Zhao and Dixon take an in-depth look at EMI in one country—China.
The book is comprised of nine studies conducted in EMI institutions around China.
The studies fall into three categories. The first section, “Perspectives”, offers three
studies addressing the varied attitudes toward EMI in China. “Discourse” takes the
reader into EMI classrooms and offers analysis on the discourse of instructors and
course materials. The final section, “Evaluation,” evaluates EMI in terms of content
outcomes, implementation aligned with policy, and instructor questioning practices.
This book acts as a great model for any researchers who would like to develop a
varied research agenda studying EMI in a single country.
Dafouz, E., & Smit, U. (2016). Towards a dynamic conceptual framework for
English-medium education in multilingual university settings. Applied Lin-
guistics, 37(3), 397–415.
Our final recommendation for reading is an article rather than a book. We feel this
article is a must-read for anyone doing research on EMI as Dafouz and Smit set out
a framework for understanding the multidimensional nature of EMI.
The ROADMAPPING framework lays out six dimensions of EMI: Roles of
English, Academic Disciplines, Language Management, Agents, Practices and
Processes, and Internationalization/Glocalization. This conceptual framework acted
as a guide for us as we developed our research questions for this chapter as well as
62 K. M. Graham and Z. R. Eslami
our own research, and we believe it can be a valuable asset for anyone creating an
EMI research agenda.
References
Airey, J. (2016). EAP, EMI, or CLIL. In K. Hyland & P. Shaw (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of
English for Academic Purposes. Routledge.
Dafouz, E., Camacho, M., & Urquia, E. (2014). Surely they can’t do as well’: A comparison of
business students’ academic performance in English-medium and
Spanish-as-first-language-medium programmes. Language and Education, 18(3), 223–236.
Dearden, J. (2015). English as a medium of instruction—A growing global phenomenon. British
Council: [Link]
Graham, K. M., & Eslami, Z. R. (2019). Attitudes toward EMI in East Asia and the Gulf: A
systematic review. Language Problems and Language Planning, 43(1), 8–31.
Joe, Y., & Lee, H. (2013). Does English-medium instruction benefit students in EFL contexts? A
case study of medical students in Korea. Asia-Pacific Education Researcher (Springer Science
& Business Media B.V.), 22(2), 201–207.
Lei, J., & Hu, G. (2014). Is English-medium instruction effective in improving Chinese
undergraduate students’ English competence? International Review of Applied Linguistics in
Language Teaching, 52(2), 99–126.
Li, M. (2017). Evaluation of learning outcomes in an education course: Does it work? In J. Zhao &
L. Q. Dixon (Eds.), English-medium Instruction in Chinese universities: Perspectives,
discourse and evaluation (pp. 147–164). Routledge.
Macaro, E., Curle, S., Pun, J., An, J., & Dearden, J. (2017). A systematic review of English
medium instruction in higher education. Language Teaching, 51(1), 36–76.
Yang, W. (2015). Content and Language Integrated Learning next in Asia: Evidence of learners’
achievement in CLIL education from a Taiwan tertiary degree programme. International
Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18(4), 361–382.
Keith M. Graham is currently working at National Taiwan Normal University. He received his
PhD from Texas A&M University in 2020. His research focuses on using qualitative and
quantitative methodologies for exploring teaching English as an international language,
particularly English medium instruction and content and language integrated teaching.
Zohreh R. Eslami is a Professor in the Educational Psychology Department at Texas A&M
University. Her research has examined intercultural communication, English as an International
language, sociocultural perspectives of teaching, acquisition of, and English-medium instructions.
Her publications include over one hundred and fifty journal papers and book chapters.
