Teaching and Learning in English Medium Instruction

An Introduction

Jack C. Richards, Jack Pun

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032043227
• eBook ISBN: 9781000543926
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Teaching and Learning in English Medium Instruction provides an overview of the nature of English Medium Instruction (EMI) in both secondary and tertiary education.

The book explores

• the nature of academic literacy in EMI
• the ways in which EMI is implemented in different contexts
• issues related to teaching and learning through the medium of English
• teaching challenges and coping strategies used by EMI teachers
• support for EMI through EAP
• the professional development needs of EMI teachers
• approaches to the evaluation of EMI programs.

The book contains a number of short chapters written in an accessible style with discussion questions and practical follow-up tasks. Throughout the book, key theory and research serve to introduce the core issues involved in EMI, which are then explored in terms of implications for practice. The book can be used in workshops and courses and for groups that include EMI teachers of content subjects, EAP teachers, TESOL students, and teachers and education officials involved with the implementation of EMI in different contexts. With the expansion of EMI worldwide in recent years the book seeks to introduce EMI to a new generation of EMI teachers and language teaching professionals.

Part 1Foundations of EMI

doi: 10.4324/9781003191445-2

Chapter 1The emergence of EMI

DOI: 10.4324/9781003191445-3

Introduction

The primary aim of formal education is to provide students with the knowledge, attitudes, and skills they need to participate productively as citizens in their community and society. Formal education is achieved through schools and other educational institutions, and literacy in the language or languages of formal education is crucial for students to achieve success in learning and to achieve the goals they set for themselves both in and beyond schooling. In many situations, the learners’ home language and the language of school-based learning are the same, as is the case for many children in Asia, the US, Europe, the UK, and elsewhere. However, some learners in countries such as Nigeria, India, Hong Kong, Denmark, Turkey, or the Philippines, at some stage in their formal education, may transition to learning academic subjects through the medium of a different language from the language or languages they normally use outside of the school context or are most familiar with. In many countries, particularly in Europe and the Gulf states, students wishing to study at the tertiary level may be required to develop the skills needed to study their academic subjects through the medium of English. The use of English to teach academic subjects such as Maths, Science, or Economics in English rather than in the students’ mother tongue or dominant language is known as English Medium Instruction or EMI. Airey (2011b, p.4) describes a number of advantages of EMI in the Swedish tertiary context, which reflects the case made for EMI in many other situations:

• In a number of disciplines, the publication of academic papers takes place almost exclusively in English. Teaching in English is therefore seen as necessary in order to prepare students for an academic career.
• In many disciplines, the majority of textbooks used are written in English. Teaching in English may then seem like a natural choice in order to have a match between lectures and course literature.
• The use of English develops the language skills and confidence of Swedish lecturers and can be seen as promoting movement/exchange of ideas in the academic world.
• Using English as the language of instruction allows visiting researchers to contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.
• Teaching in English allows exchange students to follow courses at Swedish universities.
• Swedish students can be prepared for their own studies abroad.
• A sound knowledge of English has become a strong asset in the job market.

The relationship between teaching English and teaching content has been addressed in a number of ways in language education, including Content-Based Instruction (CBI), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Academic Purposes (EAP), Immersion Education (IE), Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), as well as English Medium Instruction (EMI), which is the focus of this book. Teachers encountering these approaches would do well to ask questions such as these:

• What are the features of these approaches?
• What are their similarities and differences?
• What is the role of content in each approach?
• What is the role of English in each approach?
• Are these approaches to teaching English or to teaching academic subjects?
• What is the relationship between learning an academic subject and learning English?
• What challenges do these approaches pose for teachers and learners?
• Where are they used?

These questions will be explored throughout this book. In this chapter, our aim is to characterize the features of each of the six approaches above, and to identify how they each make connections between the language of instruction and the learning of academic content.

Content-Based Instruction

In language teaching, content-based approaches to teaching English first appeared in the 1980s at a time when Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), ESP, and EAP were emerging innovations in language teaching. Traditional approaches to language teaching seen in methods such as Audiolingualism and Situational Language Teaching were built around a carefully graded grammatical and lexical syllabus that was organized according to difficulty levels (elementary, intermediate, advanced) (Richards & Rodgers, 2014). Language systems and language skills provided the basis for the design of language courses, with course design and development of materials focusing on grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, functions, and reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. These aspects of course design were normally chosen first and, once they were identified and arranged in terms of levels of difficulty, topics such as sports heroes, the internet, or friendship could then be selected as the topic of discussion, reading and listening texts based on the students’ age and interests. “Content” in this approach was understood as the topics, themes or issues that could be used to present and practise the different syllabus strands. Adverbs of frequency, for example, could be practised through the topic of daily routines: comparative adjectives might be taught through the topic of comparing cities and places, and so on.

The approach initially known as Content-Based Instruction – CBI – and later often referred to as Content-Based Language Teaching (CBLT) – emerged as an alternative to linguistically-based course design procedures. It was developed in order to provide a more meaningful and engaging basis for classroom learning than linguistically-based approaches and one that would better prepare students for life beyond the language classroom, whether that would be in college, university or employment. Lyster (2007) defines content-based teaching as “classrooms where the subject matter is used at least some of the time as a means for providing second language learners with enriched opportunities for processing and negotiating the target language through content” (p.1) and argues that “content-based instruction provides not only the cognitive basis for language learning, however, but also the requisite motivational basis for purposeful communication” (Lyster, 2007, p.2).

Content as a means of learning or a target of learning

Two different roles for content or subject matter have emerged in CBI. In one approach, CBI is viewed primarily as a language teaching approach. Its goals are linked to language learning objectives and mastery of the four skills, and content is primarily a vehicle for providing high-interest content in a language lesson. For example, in a CBI course for Business majors in an EFL context such as Japan, a module on business communication might introduce the topic of sales and marketing since it is thought to be of general interest to most students. The teacher (who is an English teacher rather than a business lecturer) first identifies key issues and topics related to sales and marketing. A variety of activities are then developed focused on reading, writing, presentation skills, group discussion, grammar, vocabulary, and report writing, all of which are developed out of the themes and topics of the module. Assessment is based on language learning objectives rather than related to an understanding of principles of sales and marketing. This has also been termed a theme-based approach. Snow & Brinton (2017, p.5) comment: “the themes (e.g., Heroes, Save the Environment, or On-line Romance) provide the organizing principle for the course and provide the point of departure for skill and language-based instruction.” Another example is described in Wu (1996) in a program designed for ESL students in an Australian high school. Topics from a range of mainstream subjects were chosen as the basis for the course and to provide a transition to mainstream classes. Topics were chosen primarily to reflect the needs and interests of the widest number of students and also based on their linguistic appropriateness. Topics that fulfilled these requirements were multiculturalism, the nuclear age, teenage smoking, sports, the Green movement, and street kids.

The essential features of this first approach to CBI are:

• It is an approach to the teaching of a second language.
• The teacher is a language teacher.
• Content is chosen as a means of providing relevant and engaging subject matter that provides a springboard for the development of language (grammar, vocabulary etc.) as well as language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking).
• Assessment is based on language achievement.

A content-based course for English majors

For second-year students majoring in English in a Mexican university, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1 Foundations of EMI
• Part 2 The nature of academic literacy in EMI
• Part 3 Teaching and learning in EMI
• Part 4 Professional development and evaluation
• Postscript: Looking back and looking forward with EMI
• Bibliography
• Index