The dark side of EMI?: a telling case for questioning assumptions about EMI in HE

Abstract

The neoliberalisation of higher education (HE), which began in earnest about three decades ago, and the global spread of English, which began earlier, together have motivated an exponential increase in the number of universities worldwide offering English-medium instruction (EMI) as a key part of their internationalisation policies. EMI in HE is by now a much discussed and examined phenomenon; however, all too often research does not challenge certain assumptions about its existence. One assumption is that the introduction of EMI is an on-the-whole innocuous change in how HE courses are delivered, and that any negative side effects for the primary stakeholders, lecturers or students, are minimal. This paper takes a contrarian and critical view of EMI, highlighting its more problematic side. This is done to some extent through a short and selective discussion of relevant literature in the next section. However, the critique comes through most clearly in subsequent sections of the paper, in which interview data collected from an EMI lecturer at a university in Catalonia are examined. As will become clear, the perspective of this single informant, presented as a ‘telling case’ (Mitchell, John C. 1984. Typicality and the case study. In R. Ellen (ed.), Ethnographic research: A guide to general conduct , 237–241. London: Academic Press), is illuminating, as it highlights aspects of EMI that do not often appear in policy documents and research publications focussing on the topic.