English Medium Instruction Programmes: Perspectives From South East Asian Universities

151 Pages·2018·1.083 MB·English

by  Roger Barnard, Zuwati Hasim

English Medium Instruction
Programmes
This book is an exploration of the desirability and feasibility of English Medium
Instruction (EMI) in specific university settings in South East Asia. There
is an increasing trend in many universities in Asia, as elsewhere in the world, to
introduce ‘international’ academic programmes taught through the medium of
English. Despite the rapidity of this development, there is a dearth of empirical
research that investigates the opportunities and challenges across a range of specific
contexts. This volume intends to occupy this research space, firstly by reviewing
historical and contemporary trends and changes to EMI, and by eliciting the
perceptions of a number of applied linguists in a range of Asian universities. These
introductory chapters are followed by three case studies exploring the beliefs and
practices of EMI lecturers in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, and a survey of
Malaysian students’ attitudes to key issues relating to medium of instruction.
Based on these empirical studies, implications will be drawn with regard to policy,
curricula, pedagogical practice, professional development and further research.
This book will provide guidance for decision-makers and practitioners for the
effective planning and implementation of EMI programmes where English is an
additional language for lecturers and students.
Roger Barnard is an associate professor in applied linguistics at The University
of Waikato, New Zealand.
Zuwati Hasim is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of
Malaya, Malaysia.

English Medium Instruction
Programmes
Perspectives From South East Asian
Universities
Edited by Roger Barnard
and Zuwati Hasim
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Roger Barnard and Zuwati
Hasim; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Roger Barnard and Zuwati Hasim to be identified as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-22647-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-39762-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Preface vii
ROGER BARNARD AND ZUWATI HASIM
Foreword xi
ROBERT PHILLIPSON
List of contributors xvi
1 Setting the scene: EMI in Asian universities 1
ROGER BARNARD
2 Voices from the field: email interviews with applied
linguists in Asia 15
JONATHON RYAN
3 Case study: EMI in a public university in Malaysia 29
ZUWATI HASIM AND ROGER BARNARD
4 Case study: EMI in Universiti Brunei Darussalam 41
NOOR AZAM HAJI-OTHMAN AND JAMES McLELLAN
5 Case study: EMI in Indonesia 55
FUAD ABDUL HAMIED AND NENDEN SRI LENGKANAWATI
6 Student perspectives of medium of instruction
in Malaysia 70
MURAD SAEED, MARY VARGHESE, MARK HOLST AND
KAMILA GHAZALI
7 The spread of English Medium Instruction programmes:
educational and research implications 87
ANGEL M. Y. LIN AND YUEN YI LO
vi Contents
8 Market English as medium of instruction: education
in neoliberal times 104
RUANNI TUPAS
Afterword 116
ANDY KIRKPATRICK
Index 127
Preface
Roger Barnard and Zuwati Hasim
There is a rapidly increasing trend in many universities in Asia, as elsewhere in
the world, to introduce ‘international’ academic programmes taught through the
medium of English (EMI). In his Foreword to the present book, Robert Phil-
lipson describes some key issues related to the historical and current situation in
university contexts across the European Union. While he discusses the increas-
ingly hegemonic use of English as a medium of instruction, he also emphasises
the steps that are being taken in many of the member countries, notably in
Scandinavia, to maintain and develop the use of national languages for academic
purposes. In particular, he summarises eleven recommendations proposed by a
group of Nordic countries to ensure that all the academic functions that the
national language currently fulfils are maintained. He concludes that it is too
early to gauge whether these recommendations can be successfully implemented
in Europe, and wonders if they can be relevant to the very different circumstances
in higher education contexts in Asia. As he points out, English medium policies
are of major national importance in the countries where they have so rapidly been
adopted, but despite this speed, there has been a dearth of empirical research to
investigate in depth the opportunities and challenges across a range of specific
contexts. This volume intends to occupy this research space.
In Chapter 1, Roger Barnard provides a detailed historical overview of the
development of programmes of English Medium Instruction (EMI) from their
origins in Content Based Instruction (CBI) and Content and Language Inte-
grated Learning (CLIL). He then considers the current challenges to EMI in
Asian universities by reviewing relevant findings from an international survey
conducted of policies, practices and perceptions relating to EMI. In conclusion,
he looks forward to how these challenges are discussed in the following chapters.
Jonathon Ryan in C hapter 2 reports on issues in EMI provision that have
arisen in specific university programmes located in Cambodia, China, Japan, the
Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The perspectives sought were those
of applied linguists closely associated with the programmes in question, and who
each participated in a series of email interviews, reporting on their observations
and investigations. The key findings are discussed in relation to policy, the chal-
lenges faced by teachers, the challenges faced by students, evaluation of pro-
grammes, the future of EMI, and sociocultural implications. While the findings
viii Roger Barnard and Zuwati Hasim
generally concur with those reported elsewhere, they additionally highlight issues
relating to the burdens placed on some local lecturers and a perceived threat
to English-language majors. Furthermore, the findings may suggest that some
of the other early concerns about EMI, such as a lack of appropriate published
teaching materials, may be subsiding.
Chapter 3 is the first of three case studies exploring the beliefs and practices
of university lecturers regarding programmes of English Medium Instruction in
their specific contexts. Zuwati Hasim and Roger Barnard begin with an overview
of the changing language-in-education policies in Malaysia over the past sixty
years, whether English or Bahasa Malaysia should be the primary medium of
instruction in schools and universities. There has been little empirical research
into the medium of instruction in Malaysian universities, and the study reported
here explored the beliefs and practices of a group of lecturers at the oldest public
university in Malaysia. The findings from a series of interviews, classroom obser-
vations and post-lecture discussions indicate that the lecturers were confident and
fluent in their use of English, while the students were perhaps less so regarding
their own competence. The findings also suggest that there is a need to provide
language support for students and professional development in appropriate peda-
gogy for the lecturers. There were mixed views on the impact that the dominance
of English as the medium of instruction has on the use and development of
Bahasa Malaysia.
The second case study, located in Brunei, is reported by Noor Azam Haji-
Othman and James McLellan in C hapter 4 . The authors firstly outline the formulation
and development of Brunei’s national language policy and language-in-education
policies, and the beginnings and growth of Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD),
Brunei’s first and premier tertiary institution, founded in 1985. This is followed
by a description of the present study, and presentation and discussion of the find-
ings of pre- and post- lesson interviews, classroom observations, and focus group
discussions with a group of eight Bruneian lecturers who teach in English at UBD.
Their students’ views are also reported, through the findings of a small-scale
survey. The lecturers all claim that they are comfortable with the use of English
in their classes, rarely if ever resorting to Malay, the default lingua franca among
Bruneians.
In C hapter 5 , Fuad Abdul Hamied and Nenden Sri Lengkanawati report their
case study in an Indonesian context. The chapter begins with a brief description
of when and how EMI was introduced in the Indonesian education institutions
and about the policies at national and institutional levels. How EMI is imple-
mented in a specific university will then be discussed on the basis of findings from
relevant documents, a set of interviews with administrators and lecturers, and
from a number of classroom observations. It was found that every effort has been
made to offer a quality international programme and to maintain its stature as an
exemplary programme with international standards. However, teachers’ English
proficiency in the EMI programme still needs improvement as it is not only a
matter of effective classroom communication during teaching-learning activities,
but also with efficient transfer of knowledge as covered by each of the subjects
Preface ix
taught in the programme as well as to provide a good role model for the students.
Implications for the future improvement of the programme are put forward.
Chapter 6 is written by Murad Saeed, Mary Varghese, Mark Holst and Kamila
Ghazali. They report the findings of a survey of 400 Malaysian undergraduates’
perceptions of the medium of instruction at four universities. Results showed that
classes were perceived positively whatever the medium of instruction: using only
English; using only the students’ first language and mixing English and L1. How-
ever, students reported challenges and issues whatever the medium of instruction
they experienced. Despite the role of L1 in facilitating the students’ understand-
ing of the lectures, the results highlight the students’ high level of awareness of
English as a medium of instruction. The results point to an underlying pragma-
tism among students about the importance of English in their future prospects,
which supersedes their perception of their L1 as a symbol of identity in the mul-
ticultural context of Malaysia.
In C hapter 7, Angel M. Y. Lin and Yuen Yi Lo point to the many educa-
tional challenges that ensue from the lack of clear institutional policies to ensure
the effective implementation of EMI programmes in South East Asian universi-
ties. They outline three key areas in which further research and intervention is
urgently needed: the integration of language support into content teaching; the
pedagogical content knowledge of EMI teachers; and the role of local languages
and resources in EMI classrooms. They conclude by calling for the deconstruc-
tion of the myth of the prestige of EMI and argue the need for the cautious
re-examination of what is at risk if EMI is adopted without adequate teacher
preparation and institutional staffing resources.
In Chapter 8, Ruanni Tupas considers EMI in terms of ‘Market English.’ He
argues that EMI is essentially a neoliberal construction, and that EMI agendas are
anchored in the neoliberal logic of the global market – in the search for new capital
both in national and institutional levels, English serves as a commodifiable prod-
uct. Thus, ‘English’ is more appropriately ‘Market English’ in such contexts of
instruction. While much has been said critically about EMI in terms of its impact
on local linguistic ecologies and its potentially affirmative stances towards social
inequalities, with Market English we see more complications emerging: how EMI
abets the production of human bodies for the highly stratified global market.
Andy Kirkpatrick begins his Afterword by contrasting the complex cultural
diversity and heteroglossia of most East and South East Asian nations with the
more homogenous linguistic situation that prevails in many European coun-
tries. He then points out that the typological differences between the region’s
languages and English make the adoption and use of EMI considerably more
problematic than in European settings where the local languages are typologi-
cally closer to English. He then highlights some of the challenges to the imple-
mentation of EMI programmes raised by the various authors of the preceding
chapters and, based on three recent studies, relates them to the current state of
EMI in Myanmar. On the assumption that the trend towards EMI programmes
in Asian university contexts is irreversible, Kirkpatrick offers five criteria for their
implementation: firstly, the necessity of a coherent and consistent university