CLIL-ised EMI in practice: issues arising

Abstract

In the shift to English-medium instruction (EMI) in European higher education, policy often runs ahead of research and curricular decisions are taken independent of evidence regarding their suitability for achieving broader educational goals, which may range from internationalisation as a general strategy to English language learning as a more specific one. Where English language learning is a goal, EMI many be said to have been CLILised, that is, it is adopted not only for content delivery, but also as a means through which students may improve their English language knowledge and skills. Drawing on interviews and classroom observations, and employing a Membership Categorization Analysis methodology, this paper examines how a lecturer in Agronomic engineering at a Catalan university, experiences CLILised EMI. It documents how the lecturer positions himself as a content lecturer and how categories are produced and negotiated in interviews and classroom practices. Among other things, the paper shows that while the lecturer refuses to inhabit an English language teacher identity, he nonetheless acts in this capacity when he focusses on vocabulary learning through the provision of glossaries and translation. These and other findings point to a more general disjuncture between policy and practice, which, it is argued, needs to be addressed by university administrators and EMI lecturers Q1 ¶ .

Emergent STEM lecturer identities: The shaping effects of EMI in action in an internationalised and Englishised HE context

“…He also shifts the pedagogical frame by moving from an EMI lecture in English, which means a focus on content only, to an EMI lecture in Spanish, where there is the teaching of lexical items in English via translation using Spanish: fosas de purín → the manure pits; los porticos → the trusses; un forjado → a slab, and so on. This pattern of moving back and forth between English and Spanish (and sometimes Catalan, depending on the interlocutor) was a constant in Jaime's teaching, as was his tendency to position practices such as lexical translation as the teaching of disciplinary knowledge and not as language teaching activity (Moncada-Comas & Block, 2019).…”

“…EMI refers to ‘the use of the English language to teach academic subjects (other than English itself) in countries or jurisdictions where the first language (L1) of the majority of the population is not English’ (Dearden, 2015, p. 2). As noted elsewhere (Block & Khan, to appear a; Moncada-Comas & Block, 2019), this definition is useful as far as it goes, but ultimately it is far too general. Among other things, it engenders a good number of questions, such as possible distinctions with regard to different contexts and if English-mediated education in locations where the L1 is a variety of English might also be considered EMI.…”

“…Firstly, I wanted to discuss my views on identity and ways of exploring it in informant narratives, introducing a version of positioning theory to deal with the latter purpose. Secondly, my intention was to bring together a selection of findings from several publications that I had recently authored or co-authored (Block, to appear; Block & Khan, to appear a; Block & Moncada-Comas, 2019; Block & Mancho-Barés, to appear; Moncada-Comas & Block, 2019). These publications are based on an in-depth ethnographic study of the experiences of six EMI lecturers working in STEM disciplines at a Catalan university.…”

“…The paper begins with coverage of some essential background against which the research discussed here was carried out. I say essential because space does not allow for an in-depth discussion of all aspects of the research or all of the antecedents to the events and phenomena that it focuses on (see Block & Moncada-Comas, 2019; Moncada-Comas & Block, 2019 and contributions to Block & Khan, to appear b). The paper then moves to a consideration of identity as the central construct, along with a Foucauldian-inflected version of positioning theory which is employed as a means of understanding the construction of EMI STEM lecturer identities (see Block, to appear; Block & Moncada-Comas, 2019).…”

“…One interesting development in the implementation of EMI worldwide is how in an increasing number of contexts it is being positioned as an opportunity for students to improve their English, and indeed to learn English (Macaro, 2018). This shift to the inclusion of language learning as an aim of EMI means that EMI is, following Moncada-Comas and Block (2019), ‘CLIL-ised’. This means that it becomes, at least in part, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), where CLIL refers to a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language’ (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010, p. 1).…”