English medium education (EME) has been widely implemented at universities around the world. Each context reports its own unique benefits and challenges. There has been extensive work in the European context with the Asian context receiving much less attention until recently. One area of abundant research focuses on stakeholders' use and perspectives towards English in EME settings. Findings from Europe show that students in northern European countries tend to report difficulties in understanding content and worries regarding the development of L1 academic literacy (Airey, 2012). Studies from central and southern European countries report that stakeholders hold positive beliefs that EME offers opportunities for language gains without losing on content (Doiz, Lasagabaster, and Sierra 2011). Then, with respect to the Asian context, the findings show that the stakeholders report difficulties attributed to low English proficiency (Hu & Lei, 2014). However, there is little research on the emerging research trends in the EME arena which inquire into the roles of multilingualism and global citizenship in EME with the exception of Baker and Hüttner (2017) who studied conceptualizations of language in EME in Austria the UK and Thailand. Thus, this comparative and international study attempts to build on this line of research and shed light on the multilingual practices and perspectives of EME students from Spain and China. 80 participants from the two contexts participated in the study, instruments were a multilingual questionnaire, attitudes and motivational questionnaire, and focus group interviews. Analysis of the questionnaire is quantitative while the focus group interviews were analyzed qualitatively using a pattern-based analytic method and thematic analysis procedure (Braun & Clarke, 2013). In addition to this, the ROAD-MAPPING framework (Smit & Dafouz, 2014) with a focus on RO (roles) was used in order to draw parallels with Baker and Hüttner (2007). The results are preliminary at the moment but do offer insight into how multilingualism is currently understood and practiced in the EME contexts of the two settings. They highlight the differences between the two contexts and they pave the way for further research and discussion into how multilingualism might be integrated into EME to provide more equitable, diverse and inclusive higher education for all.
References:
Airey, J. 2012. "'I Don't Teach Language': The Linguistic Attitudes of Physics Lecturers in Sweden." AILA Review 25: 64–79.
Baker, W., & Hüttner, J. 2017. English and more: a multisite study of roles and conceptualizations of language in English medium multilingual universities from Europe to Asia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 30 (6): 501-516.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. 2013. Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. Sage.
Doiz, A., D. Lasagabaster, & J. Sierra. 2011. Internationalisation, Multilingualism and English Medium Instruction. World Englishes 30 (3): 345–359.
Hu, G., & J. Lei. 2014. "English-Medium Instruction in Chinese Higher Education: A Case Study." Higher Education 67 (5): 551–567.
Smit, U., & E. Dafouz. 2012. "Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education: An Introduction to English-Medium Policies, Conceptual Issues and Research Practices Across Europe." AILAReview 25: 1–12.
