Globalisation and the rapid increase in social mobility have transformed homogeneous educational contexts into more linguistically and culturally diverse ones (Piccardo, 2018), which explains the increasing critique of the predominant monoglossic ideologies in applied linguistics and the consequent 'multilingual turn' in the field. A case in point in the European context is the central role of plurilingual and pluricultural competence in the latest version of the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2020). However, at the same time, a growing number of non-English-speaking universities are being pushed to invest significant resources to introduce English-Medium Instruction (EMI) as part of their internationalisation strategy (Jenkins, 2014), while neglecting the role of other languages as part of their future graduates' professional profile. Furthermore, many EMI lecturers are non-language specialists and adopt monoglossic approaches to foreign-language teaching (i.e. native-like proficiency and one-language-only policies)(Lüdi, 2022). Therefore, although it seems unquestionable that EMI contributes to improving English, there is scant evidence on whether it may also have positive effects on learners' plurilingual competence, especially in ELF contexts in which English is not an official language.
To this end, our study aims to explore the impact of EMI on undergraduates' plurilingual competence in Spain by examining students' plurilingual competence regarding their receptive and productive language gains after taking a six-month EMI course at a university in Catalonia (Spain). A total sample of 45 undergraduates studying Business, Tourism, Primary Education and Law participated in our study. They were asked to complete 2 tests: (1) a spoken to written mediation from Catalan to English, assessed by, on the one hand, a rubric and the CEFR's scales, and, on the other hand, the CAF measures of complexity (C/TU), accuracy (EFTU/TU and Err/TU), fluency (words per 60/total seconds) and Guiraud's Index for lexical richness (types/√tokens); and (2) an oral comprehension multiple-choice test involving Catalan, Spanish and English, using raw score out of 10. Several statistical tests will be run to examine whether the difference between the pre- and post-test is statistically significant, and whether factors such as their previous educational practices, mastery and familiarity with languaging play a significant role.
Council of Europe. (2020). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment – Companion Volume. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.
Jenkins, J. (2014). English as a Lingua Franca in the International University: The Politics of Academic English Language Policy. Abingdon: Routledge.
Lüdi, G. (2022). Promoting Plurilingualism and Plurilingual Education: A European Perspective. In E. Piccardo, A. Germain-Rutherford & G. Lawrence (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Plurilingual Language Education (pp. 29-45). New York: Routledge.
Piccardo, E. (2018). Plurilingualism: Vision, Conceptualization, and Practices. In P.P. Trifonas & T. Aravossitas (Eds), Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education (pp. 207-226). New York: Springer.
