English in higher education - challenges, opportunities, current practice and future trends

On 1 December 2021 we ran a 90-minute session looking at English in higher education.

About the webinar

This session will explore English as a medium of education (EME) in higher education (HE), looking at the challenges and opportunities EME presents for learners, teachers and decision makers, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMICs). We will look at current practice LMIC contexts and potential future trends in EME in HE. The session draws on three recent publications and research: 

Recorded on 1 December 2021

About the speakers

The session will be chaired by Professor Kristina Hultgren. Kristina is Professor of Sociolinguistics and Applied Linguistics and UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellow at the Open University. 

Ann Veitch will present and discuss the British Council’s perspective on EME in HE. Ann is the British Council’s global lead for EME and multilingual education.. She has worked in ELT, training and project management for over 20 years in Poland, Egypt, Qatar, Tanzania, the UAE and the UK.

Ann will be joined by Professor Emma Dafouz, Associate Professor in the Department of English Studies at Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain, and Professor Ute Smit, Department of English, University of Vienna who will give an overview of the concept of English as a medium of education in multilingual university settings (EMEMUS).

Dr. Kari Sahan and Professor Heath Rose from the University of Oxford will present and discuss their global mapping of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in HE.

Kari is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Education, University of Oxford, an assistant project lead for the Teaching English and Teaching IN English Network and a member of the EMI Oxford Research Group.

Heath is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Education, University of Oxford who specialises in language teaching research. He is also the convenor of the EMI Oxford Research Group.

Professor Andrew Linn and Anastasiya Bezborodova from the University of Westminster and Dr Prithvi Shrestha from The Open University will present and discuss their case studies of EME in HE.

Andrew is Professor of Language, History and Society, Head of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Westminster. His research interests include language policy-making and planning and the history of Linguistics.

Anastasiya is a Lecturer in English Language, Westminster International University, Tashkent, Uzbekistan and a PhD candidate in EMI. Her research has focussed on EMI in HE in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Prithvi is a Senior Lecturer in English Language at the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics, Open University. His research interests include academic literacy, language across the curriculum, assessment and educational technology mediated language teacher education in LMICs. 

A recording of the final 30 minutes is available to watch below

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Comments

Submitted by Mars1771 on Sun, 11/26/2023 - 17:23

Last question: I'd like to add to this and that is, students are not always given an opportunity to listen to the diverse range of English around the world. The English is fantastic, it is the students lack of opportunity to different accents, as we are all well aware that English is not just the Queens-Kings English from London where the accent is so profound but the Australian, American, South African, Indian etc etc etc

Yet if Universities are hiring Teachers who are not proficient English Speakers, then yes this is a problem.

Submitted by Mars1771 on Sun, 11/26/2023 - 17:09

It would be great to have recent data_ especially for 2023. So much has happened in the past two years.
Would be interesting to know how long this data was taken over. A week, day, etc?
I feel that these studies may be of use to those in Europe as well. As many challenges are coming up re EME in higher education.
Thanks so much

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