Student Perspectives on English-Medium Instruction

Insights from an Italian University

Marta Guarda

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000423136
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book offers a window into student perceptions of English-Medium Instruction (EMI), building on research from an Italian university to provide a better understanding of attitudes toward EMI in Europe and future directions for cross-country comparative research.

The volume provides context on the current situation with EMI in Italy, unpacking debates around the tensions between the increased competitiveness it brings at the higher education level with the potential detrimental impact of English on local language practices. Seeking to introduce a counterpoint to existing research on lecturer experiences, Guarda draws on a wide range of data, from online questionnaires to semi-structured interviews and a focus group, to
showcase perceptions on EMI from students enrolled in English-Taught Programmes at the University of Padova over a two-year period. The resulting insights contribute to the current literature on EMI toward creating a clearer and more holistic picture of the advantages and challenges of learning through English and implications for quality improvement measures for EMI implementation in Italy, Europe and beyond.

This book will be of interest to scholars in English-Medium Instruction and applied linguistics, especially to those working on issues around language policy, bilingual education and the internationalisation of higher education.

Part 1

Setting the Scene

Introduction

English as a Vehicular Language in European Higher Education

Teaching and Learning Through English in European Higher Education

Over the last two decades, Europe’s higher education landscape has changed rapidly, both under the forces of globalisation - intended here as a meshing of factors such as “mobility, trade, migration, harmonization of rules, and rankings” (Wilkinson, 2016, p. 109) - as well as thanks to the initiatives undertaken as part of the Bologna Process. Set out to establish a “European area of higher education” (European Ministers of Education, 1999, p. 3), the Bologna Process sought to harmonise higher education systems across its participating countries by promoting mutual recognition of qualifications, mobility of students and teaching staff, as well as opportunities for joint collaboration in quality assurance. In this light, the Bologna Process aimed at providing higher education institutions (HEIs) with the tools and strategies to respond to the influences of globalisation and the consequent marketisation of university provision worldwide (Dill, 1997; Coleman, 2006). The internationalisation of higher education, in other words “the integration of an international or intercultural dimension into the tripartite mission of teaching, research and service functions of Higher Education” (Maringe & Foskett, 2010, p. 1), was thus seen as playing a central role in the strategic development of the tertiary education sector in Europe (Dimova & Kling, 2018).

Originally, internationalisation was meant to be pursued with full respect of the languages of the countries adhering to the Bologna Process (European Ministers of Education, 1999) and was therefore supposed to lead to increased multilingualism across the continent. Paradoxically, however, the years following the 1999 Declaration witnessed a rapid increase in the number of course units and degree programmes taught through the medium of English (Phillipson, 2006), first in northern European countries and, at a relatively slower pace, in the south of the continent (Wächter & Maiworm, 2014). Despite the official intentions of preserving Europe’s linguistic and cultural diversity, therefore, the rise in English-Taught Programmes (ETPs) normalised monolingual practices in higher education and contributed to the birth of what Phillipson (2006) calls the “European paradox,” whereby the richness of the linguistic repertoire that characterises the continent’s population was reduced to the promotion of a dominant language for tertiary education. This seems to mirror a phenomenon that is not alien to traditionally monolingual, yet highly internationalised, institutions such as those in the UK, which Preece and Martin (2010) describe as a “mismatch between the monolingual ethos and the ideology of English-medium tertiary education and the needs and identities of multilingual students” (p. 3).

The choice of switching to English for teaching and learning purposes in European HE comes as no surprise: English is the most widely used lingua franca at this time in history, a success largely due to its tremendous diffusion at a global level (Crystal, 2003) and its hegemonic and gate-keeping status as the language of academia (Fiedler 2011 in Phillipson, 2015a; Jenkins, 2014). It is through English that institutions hope to attract more national and international students and staff and thus improve their international profile (Coleman, 2006; Guarda & Helm, 2016). By teaching and conducting research through English, lecturers and researchers can gain increased international experience and enhance their employability. It is again through English that international students have access to academic programmes in countries whose native language(s) they are not necessarily competent in. And it is through English that local students hope to gain enhanced opportunities for international mobility and better career prospects in a globalised world (Ackerley et al., 2017; Coleman, 2006). For local students in particular, instruction through English is also often seen as a way to improve their competence in the language and an opportunity to experience the benefits of “internation...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• Part 1: Setting the Scene
• Part 2: Findings
• Index