ESP/EAP through English-medium Instruction: Teachers’ perceptions and practices

Abstract

English-medium instruction (EMI) is increasingly becoming popular at universities in China because of globalization and a mandate from the Ministry of Education for institutions of higher education to expand their international academic exchange. The linguistic barrier to globalization and internationalization is thought to be minimized gradually if EMI is implemented effectively. This is because EMI as a policy initiative as well as a pedagogical practice in English education at universities in China has been regarded as an innovative pedagogy that serves a dual purpose: (1) improving students’ foreign language competence and (2) learning the content knowledge of the subject that students take as their major in university study. However, little has been documented about what English teachers, who are expected to teach English with an English-for-academic-purposes or English-for-specific-purposes (ESP/EAP) focus, think of such a policy and practice and how they implement it in their own classrooms. To fill this gap, we investigated a group of English teachers’ perceptions and practices with regard to an innovated ESP/EAP curriculum/syllabus, which has integrated EMI and is redesigned in response to a subject-matter EMI degree programme. The study was carried out at a local university in China, which had seen ongoing English curriculum innovation and reform in the past five years. We report on the advantages and pitfalls of EMI as a pedagogical innovation and conclude our chapter by discussing implications for other institutions that are interested in or have started implementing EMI.