English-medium instruction in higher education: Lessons from China

Abstract

The last few decades have seen escalating national and institutional efforts to internationalize higher education around the globe. One current, popular strategy is to provide English-medium instruction (EMI) in educational contexts where English is a foreign language. As a curricular strategy intended to internationalize tertiary institutions and improve the quality of higher education, EMI has enjoyed strong policy support in Asia. However, there is a scarcity of empirical research in Asian contexts to justify such policy support. This article draws on the current literature and discusses the rationale and spread of EMI in European and Asian countries. It then presents the findings of four empirical studies recently conducted on EMI in several Chinese universities to provide a Chinese perspective. By way of conclusion, the article discusses the implications of the aforementioned studies for endeavors to implement EMI in Chinese and other EFL contexts.