Learning And Teaching Through English As The Medium Of Instruction From Pedagogical Perspective

The increasing globalization has resulted in the widespread use of English as an international language in the past 30 years. Thus, in order to meet the needs of internationalization, universities around the world implement English as Medium of Instruction(EMI) to strengthen the competitiveness as well as to attract and cater to foreign students. This trend has attracted growing attention among language educators and researchers on the study of the implementation of EMI. Accordingly, a bulk of research on the EMI courses in the tertiary education has been done both at home and abroad in recent years. Despite that, however, there has been rare research on the EMI courses of international students in the Chinese university context. Therefore, a study on the EMI courses of international students in the Chinese university context has great significance both in theory and practice.On the basis of the research background, this study took the South Asian students’ EMI courses at Dali University as an example, 251 South Asian international students and 20 Chinese teachers of Medical major were involved in the study aiming to explore the attitudes of both South Asian international students and Chinese teachers towards EMI courses, students’ perceptions on subject content learning and English improvements as well as the teaching difficulties of these teachers in EMI courses. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods including questionnaire and semi-structured interview was adopted in data collection, the data collected were coded and analyzed using SPSS22.0.Through the in-depth discussion and analysis of the data, findings of the study suggested that: First, although the South Asian students had positive affective attitudes on taking EMI courses, their attitudes towards EMI courses at Dali University were negative in general, specifically, in which they were not satisfied with the Chinese teachers’ English proficiency in EMI courses, in addition, these students had sufficient English to cope with the materials of subjects contents in EMI courses. Second, these students acknowledged that the disciplinary contents learning and English improvements were both important in EMI courses, but these EMI courses did not provide much help for their English improvements; the difficulties confronting them were the subject contents rather than the improvements of English ability, and they spent more time on the subject content learning. Meanwhile, most of the Chinese teachers had negative attitudes towards the international students’ performances in class and the teaching effects of EMI courses in general, and their inadequate English proficiency was the primary challenge they faced, though they were satisfied with these international students’ English ability; moreover, the teaching difficulties of these Chinese teachers stemmed from their own inadequate English proficiency, the teaching design and classroom managements in EMI courses.The significance of the study lies in the fact that it provides the description as well as analysis of the current situation of the EMI courses from the perspectives of South Asian international students and Chinese teachers, which may shed light on the implementation of EMI in the Chinese university context. Also, it provides some useful information for the improvements of international students education in the Chinese university context.