Research Methods in English Medium Instruction

Jack K.H. Pun, Samantha M. Curle, Jack K.H. Pun, Samantha M. Curle

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000455427
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

In this special edited volume, the editors and invited English Medium Instruction (EMI) researchers, from different parts of the world, outline the latest EMI research methods. Providing academic instruction using English is rapidly spreading in many countries where English is a second or foreign language, and there is a growing interest in researching the effectiveness and effects of EMI across different educational levels. This volume includes chapters on everything from research into classroom interaction to teachers' and students' perceptions and motivations to language challenges and strategies and the pedagogical implications of translanguaging in EMI classrooms. These specific topics were chosen to reflect different approaches to researching EMI.

Each chapter focuses on a specific type of research methodology. It begins with an overview of the literature of the topic under discussion. Then an example study is provided to illustrate how this methodology can be used to investigate EMI. Each chapter identifies the process that the EMI researcher used to conduct their research and discusses key dilemmas they faced, focusing particularly on the methodological issues they encountered. By exploring these issues, this volume hopes to inform theory (or the lack thereof) underlying research into the phenomenon of EMI.

This volume is indispensable for EMI tutors, curriculum developers, policymakers, and teachers, as well as students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It is particularly valuable for researchers from across the globe working in the fields of applied linguistics, language education, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English Language Teaching (ELT), and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

1 Research methods for English Medium Instruction in action

Jack K.H. Pun and Samantha M. Curle

DOI: 10.4324/9781003025115-1

Abstract

This introductory chapter summarises the recent trends in EMI research and the kinds of methodologies used in such research. An outline of the rest of the chapters will also be provided. Each chapter represents different subfields of EMI studies – for example, exploring classroom interactions, teachers’ and students’ perceptions, translanguaging, and language challenges and strategies. The chapters also provide detailed accounts of how different EMI researchers conducted their research studies: what decision-making processes they went through in this research process, how they recruited participants and/or got access to data, and what research instruments they developed and/or adapted to yield the data they needed to answer their research questions.

Introduction

The provision of instruction of academic content in the English language is a rapidly growing practice in many countries where English is a second or foreign language. English language instruction has been implemented in a variety of forms in different places: for example, in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Africa, Japan, and Korea, it is known as English Medium Instruction (EMI), whereas in Italy, Spain, Austria, and other European countries, it is called content and language integrated learning (CLIL). This volume focuses on EMI at both the secondary and tertiary education levels, at which research has shown that implementing EMI often has dual purposes: to improve students’ academic content knowledge as well as their English language proficiency (see Dearden, 2015; Galloway, Kriukow, & Numajiri, 2017).

For this special edited volume, we have invited EMI researchers with close connections to the EMI Oxford research group, located in different parts of the world, to outline the latest research in EMI. According to the latest systematic review of global EMI studies (Macaro, Curle, Pun, An, & Dearden, 2018), one of the growing topics within EMI studies is the implementation of EMI instruction. Within this area of research interest, the volume covers classroom interaction, perceptions of EMI among teachers and students, and language-related challenges and associated coping strategies. There is also growing research interest in the field of translanguaging in EMI classrooms (see Curle, Jablonkai, Mittelmeier, Sahan, & Veitch, 2020). We therefore include a chapter dedicated to this topic, for which the author was invited to discuss the pedagogical implications of translanguaging in EMI classrooms. These specific topics were chosen to reflect the variety of research methodologies being applied to EMI studies and the range of phenomena that are currently receiving research attention in the field.

Each chapter is focused on a specific type of research methodology, and many provide research instruments for the use of future researchers. Before reporting on its respective case study, each chapter begins with an overview of the relevant literature and the research methods that were applied. The volume thereby differs from the majority of EMI-related books by presenting case studies addressing central themes in EMI research alongside explanations of the research methods and instruments used to generate the findings. The chapters identify the processes that were followed by EMI researchers as they conducted their research, the key dilemmas they faced, and the methodological issues they encountered. Exploring these issues can inform theories underlying research into EMI and help to develop theory where it is lacking. This volume will be an indispensable resource for EMI tutors, education curriculum officers, and researchers, as well as education policymakers, secondary and tertiary education researchers, and undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of applied linguistics, language education, English for specific purposes, ELT, and TESOL.

The English language is taught at the elementary and secondary levels in many countries in which English is not the primary language. Until recently, this language education was mostly focused on establishing or improving students’ English communication skills, with English having been rarely used for content learning purposes. However, there have been major changes in the use of English in education in non-English-speaking countries over the last two decades, with EMI becoming a global phenomenon in secondary and higher education. In addition to teaching students to communicate in English, many institutions now teach certain subjects, such as science and history, in English. At last count, almost 8,000 courses were being taught in English at universities in non-English-speaking countries. The key sites for this change are higher education institutions, especially in Asia, where extensive research into EMI teaching is conducted (Tsou & Kao, 2017). For example, all universities in Hong Kong have adopted EMI as a primary teaching mode (Poon & Lau, 2016). With a growing global interest in EMI studies and the implementation of EMI in both universities and secondary schools, a methodological exploration is now warranted.

Three main reasons have been given for the aforementioned rapid growth in the implementation of EMI: (1) the rise of English as a global lingua franca, (2) the expansion of English within the Asia-Pacific region in particular, and (3) the growth of internationalisation as a feature of government education policies (Fenton-Smith, Humphreys, & Walkinshaw, 2017). In the following chapters, the research methods and instruments used to generate findings are discussed in relation to various case studies. The book then outlines the processes that EMI researchers have followed in their research and some of the major challenges they have encountered, particularly in relation to methodological issues.

1.1 Research methods in EMI studies

Studies of EMI at the secondary and tertiary levels have had slightly different focuses and have thus called for a variety of methods. Most research into EMI at the secondary school level has involved comparisons between immersion and non-immersion students on their performance in English and L1, content learning, and cognitive development. Most of these studies have used tests to measure the performance of different groups of students. Another major topic has been the feedback from teachers, students, and parents regarding their experiences with EMI. These studies have typically used questionnaires and interviews for data collection. Questionnaires have also been widely used in studies exploring children’s readiness for EMI education and the impact of EMI on students’ motivation to learn English. Other studies have used classroom observations to collect data to explore a range of topics relating to EMI such as (1) how EMI classrooms provide opportunities for students to learn the English language alongside the content, (2) the discursive practices in EMI classrooms, (3) codeswitching behaviours, (4) the strategic use of multimedia, and (5) comparing EMI and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes. Another set of studies has used genre analysis to explore the text genres in EMI textbooks, the social impact of EMI, and the link between EMI policies and children’s sociocultural ecology.

At the tertiary level, most studies exploring the effects of EMI on student achievement in English language and content have compared EMI and non-EMI classrooms. These studies have used tests to measure students’ receptive and productive vocabularies, reading comprehension, and actual L1 and L2 language use. Several studies have also explored the attitudes of teachers and students towards EMI and the development of teaching approaches for combining instruction in content and language. Data collection methods used in these studies have included semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, classroom observations, discourse analysis of lesson transcripts, student writing and learning materials, and some document analysis.

More generally, the topics discussed in studies of EMI can be categorised into six major areas, with each having its own research methodology. The first area involves comparisons between EMI and non-EMI students in their English and L1 performances, content learning, and cognitive development. Research into language policy provides empirical evidence of the correlations between the use of different mediums of instruction (e.g., Chinese or English) and students’ academic achievements. Academic achievements are measured by students’ school examination results in their language subjects (e.g., EFL and Chinese) and content subjects (e.g., mathematics, science). In Hong Kong, for example, Yip and Tsang (2007) conducted a longitudinal study of a sample of 12,000 students to investigate the effects on student achievement of the compulsory mother-tongue policy introduced in 1998 on student science learning during the first two years of junior secondary school (grades 7 and 8) in EMI and Chinese Medium Instruction (CMI) groups. Drawing on 100 EMI and CMI schools, they recruited grade 7 students with equal academic achievements prior to their admission to secondary school and measured their achievements in science subjects at grades 7, 8, and 9. EMI and CMI groups were compared using science achievement tests, questionnaires about their self-concept in science, and classroom observations of science lessons. The results showed that EMI junior secondary school students had higher science achievement scores than all but the most able CMI students at the same level, but EMI students generally held a lower self-concept than CMI students. Yip and Tsang (2007) concluded that when using L2, EMI students experience greater difficulties in trying to understand abstract concepts, making distinctions between scientific terms and applying concepts in different situations. From their observations of EMI classrooms, they further concluded that EMI negatively affected the quality of science learning due to limited English proficiency on the part of students and inadequate repertoires of instructional strategies on the part of teachers.

The second area is exploring the feedback from teachers, students, and parents regarding their experiences with EMI. For example, Chan (2014) explored the views of the principal, teachers, and students in content-subject classrooms during the implementation in Hong Kong of the fine-tuning language policy in 2010. Three methods were used in Chan’s (2014) study: (1) focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews with students and school staff members, (2) an open-ended questionnaire administered to a large student sample, and (3) analysis of non-participant and unstructured observations to supplement the qualitative data. The study showed that the increase in the amount of EMI teaching presented many language-related challenges to students and generated pedagogical and practical issues in content-subject classrooms. Two of the findings were that students with lower English proficiency faced major difficulties in learning content in EMI subjects, and that teachers would sometimes overemphasise memorisation of material and neglect to promote higher-order thinking skills. Chan (2014) thus argued that the increased amount of EMI instruction was benefiting more capable students at the cost of sacrificing the interests and learning needs of less capable students because time constraints prevented the realisation of a dual focus on language and content. Under the fine-tuning policy, Chan (2014) concluded that less capable students might be equally or even further disadvantaged compared to students in CMI schools who were not receiving a bilingual education but could obtain more content knowledge.

The third area is exploring through classroom observation how EMI classrooms provide opportunities for students to learn English. Research into classroom interactions in the context of EMI has been mainly focused on teacher-student interactions and the EMI teaching practices of individual science teachers (Chan, 2013, 2014; Lin, 2006; Lo & Macaro, 2012; Lo, 2014; Wannagat, 2007; Yip, Coyle, & Tsang, 2007). These studies take an ethnographic approach, using observations and interviews together with discourse analysis to identify patterns of interactions between teachers and their students. For example, Lo and Macaro (2012) used classroom observations to compare classroom interactions between EMI and MOI-switching secondary schools (those that had moved from adopting CMI to allowing EMI) in Hong Kong. They compared the quality of L2 language learning in humanities and science classrooms by the number of turns that students took at talking, the length of these turns, and the Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) patterns (Sinclair & Coulthard, 1975), while also identifying types of form-focused exchanges by paying attention to specific grammatical rules and lexical items (Costa, 2012). The observation of 22 lessons at grades 9 and 10 showed that science lessons were teacher-centred, and the analysis of IRF sequences showed a significantly lower proportion of student talk characterised by frequent short turns. Teachers also paid less attention to form-focused instruction in L2. Both the register of science and the availability of other semiotic resources for teaching science were found to have reduced the L2 language learning opportunities that would otherwise arise from engaging students in class discussions and interactions with their teacher. Lo and Macaro’s (2012) study revealed a dilemma encountered by teachers in MOI-switching schools: although making use of L1 might slow the process of learning English, the full use of EMI might inhibit the pedagogical processes that support deeper learning.

The fourth area is examining the effects of EMI experiences on students’ motivation to learn English. Researchers in this area hold that the nature of the interactions between MOI and language learning motivation (LLM) is important due to the significance of LLM for attaining language skills (Hennebry & Gao, 2018; Jiang, Zhang, & May, 2019). For example, Hennebry and Gao (2018) examined interactions between English LLM and different MOI settings. Purposive, stratified sampling was used to recruit 3,854 Hong Kong secondary school students from four EMI, five mixed-medium instruction (MMI), and two CMI schools. Questionnaires are recommended for examining motivation in the field of psychology in general and specifically in studies of LLM (see Bernaus & Gardner, 2008; Chen, Warden, & Chang, 2005; Gardner & Tremblay, 1994). Accordingly, Hennebry and Gao (2018) administered a questionnaire comprising scales for measuring a range of English LLM constructs. It was found that EMI students showed higher motivations for learning English than CMI and MMI students, thus suggesting that EMI classrooms provide motivation to learn English. Although the results indicated similar motivational profiles across the three MOIs, EMI students scored highest on the required orientation and the instrumental promotion orientation. This finding supports the idea that LLM is responsive to contextual features, as these orientations were the highest scales across the MOI settings.

The fifth major area is the genre analysis of text genres in EMI textbooks. Studies in this area have mainly focused on the language features of these texts, which are written in English and present content, not language instruction. On the basis that EMI textbooks are the primary linguistic resources for ESL students to learn the content and language, or jargon, of a subje...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of contributors
• 1 Research methods for English Medium Instruction in action
• 2 Research conducted on classroom interaction in the English Medium Instruction context
• 3 Trends in using questionnaires for EMI research: suggestions for future improvements
• 4 Teachers’ cognitions on motivational practice in medium of instruction settings: lessons learned in using stimulated recall interviews
• 5 Researching assessment in EMI
• 6 Establishing quality criteria and an EMI certification procedure
• 7 Corpus linguistic methods in EMI research: a missed opportunity?
• 8 Developing a Collaborative Lesson Planning Tool in EMI
• 9 Researching translanguaging in EMI classrooms
• Index