Multilingual classrooms: Opportunities and challenges for English medium instruction in low and middle income contexts

This report recognises both the arguments for education to be in a familiar language and the demand for English.

It reviews the global literature on medium of instruction and learning, drawing lessons from existing research, and looks in depth at the policy and practice of EMI in primary schools in Ghana and India. Findings show that rigid policies promoting one language of instruction can constitute a barrier to good pedagogic practice, limiting opportunities for student learning, and that teachers’ valuing of a flexible approach is vital. The report proposes multilingual strategies to support EMI, and provides recommendations to different stakeholders to maximise educational outcomes. This research project is a collaboration between The British Council, Education Development Trust, and The Open University.

This publication is free to download in pdf format below.

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