English as the Language-of-Education Mechanisms in Europe: New Transdisciplinary Approaches in Linguistics

Zuaro, Beatrice; Wingrove, Peter; Yuksel, Dogan; Nao, Marion and Hultgren, Anna Kristina (2023). English as the Language-of-Education Mechanisms in Europe: New Transdisciplinary Approaches in Linguistics. In: 7th International Contemporary Educational Research Congress, 27-30 Sep 2023, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Turkey.

Abstract

The increase of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in universities in non-English-dominant countries has generated intense debates, yet the drivers of EMI still need to be fully understood. This panel, via utilizing different methodologies, employs a transdisciplinary perspective to unravel the drivers of EMI. Specifically, we bring together applied linguists and those involved in academic governance to re-theorize the rise of EMI as linked to ‘steering at a distance’ governance reforms that have swept across the European higher education sector since the 1980s.

To date, EMI research has been conducted mainly, though not exclusively, within the purview of Applied Linguistics, attracting scholars from a range of sub-fields and international perspectives, including CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), ICLHE (Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education), ELF (English as a lingua franca), TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages), EAP (English for Academic Purposes), to name but a few. While these fields have greatly enhanced understandings of EMI, the uptake and impact of this work outside of Applied Linguistics is less clear, and considerable disconnects remain between and within stakeholder groups, e.g., between academics and wider society, policymakers and practitioners; linguists and non-linguists; content teachers and language teachers, etc.


This panel discusses the preliminary findings from the ELEMENTAL project (*) and is structured into four parts.

- The first part will provide background information about the ELEMENTAL project and introduce the methodological and theoretical framework.

- In the second part, we will focus on the number of English-taught Programmes (ETPs) in European Higher Education by providing both historical and modern trends.

- In the third section, the drivers of EMI in Turkiye will be discussed by considering the impact of neo-liberal policies.

- The final section will discuss university reform and resistance by introducing a legal case from Italy.

(*) ELEMENTAL (English as the Language-of-Education Mechanisms in Europe: New Transdisciplinary Approaches in Linguistics) project is funded by UK Research and Innovation under a Future Leaders Fellowship (grant reference: MR/T021500/1).

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