Profiles of students in bilingual university degree programusing english as a medium of instruction in Spain

Abstract

This is an empirical study which aims to examine the profile of Spanish university students in bilingual degree programs that employ English as a medium of instruction by utilizing the bilingual section of the teaching degree course at the University of Granada as a sample. To this end, a questionnaire was applied to 216 students. While 75% of the students reported having problems when following a bilingual class, these difficulties were found to diminish or disappear after the first trimester. The majority of the students (70%) were satisfied with the program offered but they also detected some deficiencies, which provided a basis for various suggestions as to how university bilingual programs might be improved.