Promoting English-as-a-medium-of-instruction (EMI) Teacher Development in Higher Education: What Can Language Specialists Do and Become?

Abstract

Despite the rapid expansion of English-as-a-medium-of-instruction (EMI) programs in higher education, EMI teacher education is still in its infancy. This viewpoint paper analyses what language specialists can do and become in EMI teacher education in university settings. Specifically, the paper argues that language specialists can take on a new role as EMI teacher educators and contribute to EMI teaching and teacher development in different ways, including: (1) initiating classroom change through awareness raising; (2) integrating content and language in specific disciplines through collaboration; (3) attending to EMI teachers’ social and affective needs; and (4) advocating the professional status of EMI teachers. The paper also proposes a tentative framework on EMI teacher educator identity, which can serve as a frame of reference for language specialists who are interested in embarking on a new professional path as EMI teacher educators.

How to kill two birds with one stone: EMI teachers’ needs in higher education in China

“…Given the differences in policy support at the state level, few studies have investigated the institutional level support from teachers' perspective. Despite the demands for high levels of both English proficiency and pedagogy in qualified teachers, professional development and support have not been given much attention (Macaro et al 2018;Yuan 2020;2021). Given that in-service training is one of the major issues affecting the successful delivery of EMI 3 programmes (Jiang et al 2019;Macaro and Han 2020;Macaro et al 2018), little research has been carried out with regard to what types of training are needed for EMI professionals.…”

Japanese Graduate Students’ Experiences in Online International Development and Peace Through Sport Courses Using English-Medium Instruction During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The graduate students in this study learned how to adjust to new learning styles (collaborative learning to independent learning) in academic and social interactions during the online learning experiences ( Sato & Hodge, 2015 ). According to Yuan (2021) , students gain knowledge and improve their English competency when online courses are designed to use four different types of discourse, including introduction, clarification, disagreement, and counteroffer. For example, the master's program may be better to invite English language specialists and embrace a language focus in teaching design, so that both the professors and students can design debates (as an example) about a sport for development scenario.…”

Student support and teacher education in English for Academic Purposes and English Medium Instruction: Two sides of the same coin?

“…An approach to subject teacher education that has been widely advocated by scholars in EMI (Airey, 2011;Dafouz, 2021;Lasagabaster, 2018;Yuan, 2021) and EAP (Dudley-Evans & St John 1998;Murray, 2022;Wingate, 2015) is the collaboration between language/EAP specialists and subject lecturers. In this approach, the language specialist's role is to raise subject lecturers' awareness of the discipline's literacy conventions and help them to identify student needs as well as ways in which these needs can be addressed.…”

“…Lasagabaster (2018) promotes team teaching as a way of raising subject lecturers' awareness of language issues and of the role they should play in teaching discipline-specific language. Yuan (2021) proposes various ways in which language specialists can act as EMI teacher educators. For example, they can be 'resource providers' (p. 5) who share their teaching expertise as well as their knowledge of the relevant literature in language education with content lecturers.…”

“…Even among those EMI scholars who do advocate cross-fertilisation and collaboration between EMI and EAP scholarship (e.g. Dafouz, 2021;Schmidt-Unterberger, 2018;Yuan, 2021), certain perceptions of EAP and the field from which it derived, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), can be found that do not concur with their original conceptualisations. In this paper, I wish to extend our previous argument (Wingate & Hakim, 2022) that in the areas of student support and teacher education the domains of EMI and EAP share similar concerns and challenges and can therefore be seen as two sides of the same coin, and that it would be helpful for EMI researchers and practitioners to consider the theoretical and pedagogical insights offered by EAP and its parent field, ESP.…”