In Search of Methodology for English Medium Instruction

Abstract

English Medium Instruction (EMI) — teaching/learning of content through English at a university — is currently gaining momentum worldwide, albeit it still lacks consensus regarding conceptualization and efficacious pedagogy and encounters a myriad of challenges at the implementation level. The latter prompt ed a host of researchers to voice concerns about its possible negative effects on content learning and overall educational quality. Current EMI conceptualization is primarily informed by the applied linguistics perspective. Drawing on the dialectical unity of language (word) and cognition (thought), the article presents recent and fruitful applications of Vygotsky’s ideas to foreign language teaching/learning praxis and suggests a symbiosis of two theoretical perspectives — the cultural historical theory and systemic functional linguistics — to inform teaching/learning in English-mediated contexts. The article shifts the focus from the most researched area in the EMI acronym, which is E (dealing with the English language issues), to I (Instruction) to suggest a potential conceptual and pedagogical solution to the EMI conundrum.