Attention to language in English-medium instruction in high school and university settings in South Korea

Abstract

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become prevalent worldwide due to the recent trend towards the internationalisation of higher education (HE), and South Korea is no exception. In South Korea, EMI is well established in HE and has recently begun to emerge also in secondary education. Most previous research in EMI focuses on policies or participant perceptions of EMI. Limited research to date has focused on the actions taken by content teachers to foster their students’ disciplinary English development. This study examined the kinds of language support that content teachers and lecturers provided in their planned and incidental teaching practices and whether the attention to disciplinary uses of English in their incidental teaching practices appeared to lead to students’ learning. The study was conducted in a high school and university in South Korea. It investigated content teachers’ planned and incidental attention to disciplinary uses of English in two Social Science and two Mathematics EMI classes. A comparison was also made between the high school and university. A mixed-method design was used, including classroom observation and analysis of transcripts, interviews and document analysis, and language tests. The teachers’ planned practices were examined through an analysis of their teaching materials and interviews with them about their roles and intentions to support their students’ development of disciplinary uses of English. Results revealed that the teachers and lecturers perceived highlighting disciplinary uses of language was integral to their EMI roles and that they included planned attention to language in their materials. The teachers’ incidental attention to language was examined through an analysis of language-related episodes (LREs) arising during classroom interaction. A total of 430 LREs were identified from around 21 hours of naturally occurring classroom recordings, which indicated that shifts of attention from content to language were frequent during classes. Analysis revealed that there were more pre-emptive than reactive LREs, which suggests that the teachers took steps to highlight language use and not only respond to linguistic errors. Nearly all LREs were found to focus on disciplinary uses of vocabulary. Tailor-made language tests were devised to ascertain whether students appeared to learn the language items targeted in the LREs. Test results indicated that students learnt the items targeted in the LREs and that there was a statistically significant relationship between the type and complexity of LREs and correct responses to test items. The thesis concludes with theoretical implications drawn from the findings and practical applications in EMI, which it is hoped will be of use to academic researchers and EMI stakeholders in South Korea as well as other geographical contexts.