Attitudes towards English as a Medium of Instruction in Malawian Universities

Abstract

Malawi's language-in-education policies have been through numerous changes since the colonial period. In 1996 a policy directive was announced which encouraged the use of the mother tongue in the early stages of education, before transitioning to English. However, this policy was never effectively implemented and, in 2014, an English-only policy was announced. This has resulted in renewed debate around which languages are suitable for use as mediums of instruction in the country. This article will discuss the Malawian language-in-education policy context, with a focus on university education and the prevailing attitudes which students and staff exhibit towards English. This will be done through an analysis of data collected through focus groups and interviews with students and staff in Malawian universities. The results show that, while English is viewed positively and as suitable for use within universities, it is not viewed uncritically and there are complex attitudes towards the language. English skills are viewed as a valuable resource; however, so too are multilingual language skills. Students and staff also display positive attitudes towards the use of a multilingual language policy in the university, suggesting that the recent policy changes in Malawi do not reflect stakeholder attitudes.

International Graduate Students’ Experiences of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) Courses in a Korean University

“…Study findings from the interviews are aligned with previous studies that highlighted the importance of i) ELLs' attitudes towards EMI courses (Jensen & Thøgersen, 2011;& Miao, 2015;Reilly, 2019;Yeh, 2014), ii) ELLs' opinions of the effectiveness of EMI (Chu et al, 2018;Corrales et al, 2016;Fang & Liu, 2020;Huang, 2015), iii) ELLs' self-evaluation of language ability (Belhiah & Elhami, 2015;Coşgun & Hasırcı, 2017), and iv) challenges that ELLs faced while taking EMI courses (Tsou & Kao, 2017;Walkinshaw et al, 2017).…”

“…Several studies have documented how EMI can impact ELLs' course attitudes and satisfaction (Jensen & Thøgersen, 2011;Muthanna & Miao, 2015;Reilly, 2019;Yeh, 2014). For instance, Muthanna and Miao (2015) found that ELLs showed positive attitudes towards the EMI courses.…”

“…The results suggested that ELLs agreed with the benefits of EMI courses, such as enhancing English ability and future academic studies. Previous studies have shown that ELLs can have positive attitudes towards EMI courses due to potential future benefits, including their future job purposes, academic achievement, and becoming multilingual (Jensen & Thøgersen, 2011;Muthanna & Miao, 2015;Reilly, 2019;Yeh, 2014).…”

An Investigation into the Attitudes and Practices of Nigerian Students towards the Use of English Language and Their Native Languages in a Culturally Diverse Society

“…In the case of Malawi, her policy used to encourage the use of mother tongue because it is endangered, controversy came in with the implementation of English as a language to be used in the country's universities. The students and the staff display positive attitudes for multilingual language skills(Reilly, 2019). Meanwhile, Nguyen and Hamid (2018) see bilingualism as a resource in the case of Vietnamese ethnic minority students' attitudes towards informal and formal language policies in different domains such as the church, school, ethnic community as well as towards their individual bilingualism.…”