Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Affective Dimension in English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education
    The Affective Dimension in English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education
    The Affective Dimension in English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education
    Ebook461 pages6 hours

    The Affective Dimension in English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This book brings together current research on the impact of affective factors on learning in English-medium instruction (EMI), exploring both student and teacher perspectives. With the number of EMI programs rapidly increasing around the world, it offers a timely investigation into the affective dimension in these settings to provide a better understanding of how programs can be streamlined and enhanced. The chapters cover topics such as learner motivation, anxiety, emotions, willingness to communicate, teacher motivation and teacher beliefs. They offer new insights into the field with data from Anglophone and non-Anglophone countries, monolingual and multilingual territories as well as migration contexts. Each chapter concludes with recommendations for both language and content teachers in higher education settings. This book will be of interest to researchers working in the fields of applied linguistics, bilingual education, multilingualism and language teaching as well as teacher trainers and adult education instructors seeking to expand their knowledge on the affective dimension.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMultilingual Matters
    Release dateNov 12, 2024
    ISBN9781800417670
    The Affective Dimension in English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education

    Related to The Affective Dimension in English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education

    Titles in the series (66)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Linguistics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Affective Dimension in English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Affective Dimension in English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education - David Lasagabaster

      Introduction – The Impact of Affective Variables on EMI Programmes: A Close Examination

      David Lasagabaster, Alberto Fernández-Costales and Flor de Lis González-Mujico

      Affective factors are connected with emotions, feelings, moods and attitudes, which is why affective instruments of measurement are aimed ‘to capture people’s feelings, attitudes, or inner emotional states’ (McCoach et al., 2023: 1). Affective factors are pivotal in teaching and learning and, in fact, research has consistently reported how they contribute to learner success (Simons & Smits, 2020). Elements such as motivation, language attitudes, anxiety and emotions have been on the radar of applied linguists since the 2000s (e.g. Lasagabaster, 2016; Macaro et al., 2018; Morley et al., 2021). However, considering the social relevance and the impact of the affective dimension on learning, further research is needed, especially when it comes to tertiary education, because robust research on the affective sphere has a strong potential to provide rich data that can be used to improve education programmes. This book offers an updated outlook of cutting-edge research into the most salient factors that affect learning in English-medium instruction (EMI), taking into account students’ and teachers’ experiences and perspectives. This is important because universities should strive to develop not only stakeholders’ cognitive domain, but they also need to foster and underpin their affective domain. Although applied linguists have often been too focused on individual’s cognitive skills, on many occasions emotions rather than intellect help to account for the easiness or the difficulties students may go through during the learning process (Klebowska, 2012). As a result of this, it could be affirmed that nowadays there is widespread agreement on the fact that both the cognitive and the affective domains complement each other. As Dörnyei and Ryan bluntly put it:

      Perhaps the greatest omission of the classic ID [individual difference] paradigm is that it barely acknowledges the central role of emotions in human thought and behaviour, even though affect is an unavoidable component of any attempt to understand the nature of learner characteristics. (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015: 9)

      These authors underscore that the trend to regard affect as a poor relation to cognition or rational thinking is deeply rooted in the Western tradition that has tended to separate reason from emotion. Since the learning process is an emotionally heavily loaded process, we strongly believe that a close look at affective factors will help us to better understand the relationship between cognition and emotion. If our objective is to have engaged and proactive learners and teachers in our university classrooms, it is vital to try to find out how we can bolster their engagement, but we should not overlook the fact that ‘emotions create the foundations on which engagement is built’ (Mercer & Dörnyei, 2020: 161). In addition, research has revealed that students’ success in EMI programmes is not solely based on English proficiency and that researchers should also zoom in on affective variables such as attitudes, motivation, self-concept and self-efficacy in order to capture the wider picture of the learning process (Bradford, 2019; Thompson et al., 2022; Zhou et al., 2023).

      In this light, the current edited volume aims to bridge this lack of communication between the cognitive and the affective domains in order to shed light on those affective factors that may help to implement and develop more effective and successful EMI programmes. This is a conviction firmly shared by the three editors.

      The Englishisation of higher education appears to be an approach adopted by many universities to promote outward-looking and internationalization perspectives (Ryan, 2018). As a result, the number of EMI programmes is rapidly increasing at a global scale, and their spread has clearly outpaced research. In fact, despite the ‘exponentially growing research literature’ in EMI (Smit, 2023: 1), affective factors have hitherto been overlooked. From an affective point of view, the implementation of English as a medium of instruction and the key role that it assumes in the internationalization process seems to have an impact on the language ecology of these institutions (Lasagabaster, 2022). In recognition of these two factors, this book attempts to delve into how the teaching and learning process through English at university level interacts with the various affective factors that surround its environment and the other languages in contact.

      By investigating EMI education from an affective lens, the aim of this book is not only to provide new insights into the teaching and learning process through English at university level, but also to determine a better understanding of how students’ and teachers’ affective domains work, and how language teacher education (LTE) programmes can be streamlined and enhanced. In other words, this volume attempts to extend our methodological and theoretical understanding of the impact of the affective dimension on language learning within tertiary education. To achieve this objective, we approached a number of active EMI researchers in the field of affectivity and invited them to contribute to their areas of expertise. The response was encouragingly positive from leading scholars in the field, with a renowned track of publications in EMI and related topics, at universities worldwide, spanning three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe. This international group of scholars is a further testimony of the flourishing interest in the affectivity domain in EMI settings.

      The different studies that these scholars present in this book begin with an analysis of the particular affective dimension(s) under scrutiny, followed by a more specific examination of this dimension within EMI programmes at colleges and university. Some of the topics covered approach teachers’ and learners’ motivation, self-concept and identity (Chapters 1, 4, 5 and 8), language attitudes and beliefs (Chapters 2, 3 and 9), and perceptions (Chapters 6, 7, 10 and 11), among others. The contributions to this volume provide new insights into this field by offering an updated and exhaustive panorama on affective factors in language learning in several higher education settings, including Anglophone (Chapters 2 and 4) and non-Anglophone countries: China (Chapters 11 and 3), different European contexts (Chapters 6, 8, 9 and 10), Japan (Chapters 1 and 5), South Africa (Chapter 2), South Korea (Chapter 5), and Turkey (Chapter 7). In addition, monolingual and multilingual territories, as well as migration contexts are reviewed.

      From a methodological viewpoint, these scholars employ an eclectic range of approaches to examine contemporary issues, combining the conventional and the traditional with more dynamic approaches. Accordingly, an even keel of quantitative (Chapters 5, 9 and 10), qualitative (Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 7) and mixed-methods (Chapters 3, 6, 8 and 11) research studies is presented to shed light on the nuanced and the quantifiable factors that have a significant impact on the affective dimension in EMI.

      The topics these scholars address fall under three primary parts. Part 1 deals with the impact of affective factors on identity and wellbeing on the field and comprises four chapters. Bradford (Chapter 1) starts by exploring Japanese female professors traversing internationalized classroom worlds, which she defines as scary and challenging, yet a fun and necessary adventure. In this first chapter, Bradford sheds some light on the complexity of interactions within international Japanese university contexts. As higher education becomes more international and classrooms become more diverse, Bradford provides some insight into how faculty members navigate these contexts that are internationalizing in different ways and brimming with complex interactions. Through narrative inquiry, the study reflects on the journeys of eight Japanese female professors as they traverse cultures and worlds, navigating classes in English and Japanese with varied groups of students, exploring the ways in which female faculty construct and manage their competing identities, their feelings of ‘fit’ and (dis)comfort as these professors manage their ascribed and personal identities to become trans-world professionals.

      Coetzee-Van Rooy (Chapter 2) presents an analysis of 55 language portraits to study the interrelationships between language and identity among multilingual South African students through the beliefs and the experiences they have with using English as language of learning and teaching (LoLT). Known for its complex multilingual ecology in which English plays specific roles, Coetzee-Van Rooy examines the complicated interplay between multilingualism and the use of English as LoLT in South African higher education settings. The context of the study reported on is that of a large-scale language portrait study where a total of 2033 language portraits were collected from first year students attending the North-West University’s (NWU) welcoming and reception programme in South Africa.

      Yuan et al. (Chapter 3) consider the relationship between EMI teacher motivation and perceived burnout within Chinese university settings to elucidate upon how addressing EMI teachers’ needs and well-being can be beneficial for EMI teacher education and retention. The study is part of a larger research project on EMI teachers’ professional experience and continuing development in Chinese higher education. A mixed-methods approach of questionnaires and interviews is employed to probe into the psychological experiences of 45 EMI teachers from different universities in China through five dimensions, namely self-efficacy, collective efficacy, outcome expectancy beliefs, satisfaction, and stress. The aim of the chapter is to confirm whether a relationship exists among these five dimensions, whether this association or these individual dimensions are subject to gender, disciplinary or academic position variance, and the impact of these correlations upon teacher motivation and job satisfaction.

      Lastly, Dearden and Kubanyiova (Chapter 4) explore affect through the philosophical lens of identity narratives in the context of migrant adults attending English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) classes at an adult education institute in the UK. It critically reflects on the role of affect in a teacher-student relationship through observations, interactions, and narratives by focusing on a highly qualified professional from Iran with aspirations of attending university to complete a PhD in aerospace engineering. The chapter discusses its implications for language teaching pedagogy, while at the same time reflecting on the limits of current ESOL provision as preparation for students’ future EMI education. These authors adopt a creative non-fiction approach (CNF) to shed light on these affective encounters and reflect on how ESOL provision might be enhanced to enable its participants to pursue a wider range of options, including EMI higher education. Although EMI usually refers to the teaching of academic subjects through English in non-Anglophone contexts (Macaro et al., 2018; Smit, 2023), we agree with those authors (e.g. Pecorari & Malmström, 2018) who claim that EMI research should also approach Anglophone countries on the grounds that students whose L1 is not English face similar challenges to those experienced by EMI students in non-Anglophone settings.

      Part 2 addresses the impact of affective factors on academic results in EMI and covers three chapters. Thompson et al. (Chapter 5) begin by exploring the potential impact of affective factors such as L2 self-concept, motivation, and self-regulation on language attainment across EMI students at Korean and Japanese universities. Specifically, it compares learners from different disciplinary contexts using the same content knowledge measurement in relation to the strength of these affective factors as predictors of business content knowledge for learners studying via EMI at universities in Korea and Japan. This study analyses test and questionnaire data from 455 students studying business classes from two institutions and participants represent three groups (Japanese business majors, Korean business majors, and Korean non-business majors). The authors aim to define the relevance of language proficiency and the potential impact of motivation and self-regulatory behaviour and instruction on EMI success, and to understand which factors may motivate different types of student groups.

      González-Mujico and Fernández-Costales (Chapter 6) examine the impact of perceived digital competence on faculty and students’ digital competence and academic results across undergraduate programmes at a Spanish university. This is a topical piece of research that aligns with the rapidly developing body of literature on the level and development of digital competence within higher education. Using the DigCompEdu and DigComp 2.0 self-assessment tools, this study explores the affective dimension of teachers’ and learners’ perceived digital competence and its impact on academic outcomes through task performance and academic grades. The chapter uses a mixed-methods approach to analyse a total of 31 undergraduate dissertations submitted in EMI degree programmes across four disciplines.

      As a final point, Sahan (Chapter 7) attempts to shed light on questions of language learning through EMI by exploring students’ and teachers’ perceptions of EMI policies and motivations in relation to academic outcomes in Turkish higher education. Although EMI programmes are often assumed to simultaneously improve students’ understanding of content knowledge and their English language skills, Sahan discusses the degree to which EMI programmes achieve these alleged dual aims and the reasons why EMI study programmes are primarily undertaken. The study uses interviews and focus groups to examine the perceptions of 21 teachers and 150 students from Engineering Faculties at seven universities using qualitative content analysis.

      Part 3 focuses on the impact of affective factors on classroom practices and perceptions in EMI and includes four chapters. Dalziel and Guarda (Chapter 8) consider attitudes and emotional responses to language use and the emergence of plurilingual identities in the context of two EMI programmes at an Italian university with high numbers of international students. The objective is to offer practitioners a comprehensive view of affective elements within the EMI classroom, particularly within the context of multilingual educational settings, thereby contributing to their pedagogical insights and strategies. Through questionnaire responses and focus group discussions, the authors delve into students’ selection of degree programmes and their emotional responses associated with the languages employed for learning purposes. This chapter reflects on the students’ profound emotional connection to the English language as an integral component of their academic identity and translanguaging practices in the process of content knowledge acquisition.

      Serna-Bermejo and Lasagabaster (Chapter 9) scrutinize the convictions and inclinations of 455 learners concerning their engagement in EMI lectures conducted at a Spanish university, a context where language proficiency and the learning milieu exert notable influence. Given the paucity of research dedicated to the subject of interaction and students’ perspectives, the present study addresses this void by analysing university students’ beliefs about the impact of EMI on classroom interaction. Subsequently, an insightful discussion is presented on the positive and negative impact of gender and level of language proficiency on students’ beliefs about language interaction and their willingness to participate in EMI classes.

      Dimova and Jensen (Chapter 10) examine students’ perceptions of lecturers’ English competences for teaching, with a particular focus on accent, comprehensibility, overall proficiency, and the lecturers’ English proficiency at a Danish university. The study involves the assessment of audio-recorded lectures conducted by 16 lecturers and their corresponding scores on an oral English proficiency test, with a total of 95 student evaluations. Using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) along with post-hoc Tukey testing and Pearson correlation for data exploration and inference, these authors analyse the impact of lecturers’ English language competence for teaching and their overall oral English proficiency on students’ evaluations and its implications for effective EMI teacher training.

      Jia et al. (Chapter 11) wrap up this final part investigating the relationships between learner characteristics (namely anxiety, motivation and narrative identity) and self-perceived language challenges among postgraduate EMI students in China. The study employs a convergent parallel mixed-methods approach, with 88 postgraduate engineering students participating in surveys, and a subset of six students engaged in semi-structured interviews. Correlation analysis is used to decipher the complex relationship between language challenges, English learning motivation, and EMI classroom anxiety, while qualitative data uncovers overarching themes pertaining to the interplay of these three learner attributes through students’ narrative identities. By synthesising these two sets of findings, these authors attempt to delineate a multifaceted relationship in which anxiety, motivation and self-perceived language challenges can exhibit both positive and negative associations, influenced by situational factors and students’ individualised narrative identities.

      Besides presenting empirical results on the affective dimension in EMI, this book also approaches the educational implications for teachers and students, offering guidelines for language and content lecturers in tertiary education. With a view to maintaining the coherence of the volume, all chapters end with a final section in which authors explain how their findings can contribute to improving both language and content teaching and learning practices, while they also propose recommendations for EMI education in university settings.

      As a final reflection of the volume as a whole and where it may lead the field to in terms of future research, Macaro expands the discussion one last time in the Epilogue summarising the main findings set forth in the book, making connections between them and providing potential new avenues for research. We hope that this collection of engaging and appealing chapters will whet researchers’ appetite to embark on new research projects in the EMI field of research by drawing on the rich findings discussed by the contributors, while it will also serve to give food for thought to EMI teacher trainers when it comes to tackling the affective parameter in their training courses. Although both teachers’ and students’ language proficiency has an impact on EMI, the impact of affective factors on performance should not be underestimated.

      Acknowledgements

      Our deepest gratitude goes to all the contributors for their readiness to participate in this edited volume from the very moment we got in touch with them, for addressing effectively the comments made by the reviewers during the two rounds of review, and, last but not least, for scrupulously meeting the deadlines established by the editors.

      We would also like to point out that this volume is part of the following two research projects: Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [grant number PID2020-117882GB-I00] and Department of Education, University and Research of the Basque Government [grant number IT1426-22].

      References

      Bradford, A. (2019) It’s not all about English! The problem of language foregrounding in English-medium programmes in Japan. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 40 (8), 707–720.

      Dörnyei, Z. and Ryan, S. (2015) The Psychology of the Language Learner Revisited. Routledge.

      Klebowska, M. (2012) The place of affect in second language acquisition. In M. Pawlak (ed.) New Perspectives on Individual Differences in Language Learning and Teaching (pp. 157–167). Springer-Verlag.

      Lasagabaster, D. (2016) The relationship between motivation, gender, L1 and possible selves in English-medium instruction. International Journal of Multilingualism 13 (3), 315–332.

      Lasagabaster, D. (2022) English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education. Cambridge University Press.

      Macaro, E., Curle, S., Pun, J., An, J. and Dearden, J. (2018) A systematic review of English medium instruction in higher education. Language Teaching 51 (01), 36–76.

      McCoach, D.B., Gable, R.K. and Madura, J.P. (2023) Instrument Development in the Affective Domain: School and Corporate Applications (3rd edn). Springer.

      Mercer, S. and Dörnyei, Z. (2020) Engaging Language Learners in Contemporary Classrooms. Cambridge University Press.

      Morley, L., Roberts, P. and Ota, H. (2021) The affective assemblage of internationalisation in Japanese higher education. Higher Education 82, 765–781.

      Pecorari, D. and Malmström, H. (2018) At the crossroads of TESOL and English medium instruction. TESOL Quarterly 52 (1), 497–515.

      Ryan, J. (2018) Voices from the field: Email interviews with applied linguists in Asia. In R. Barnard and Z. Hasim (eds) English Medium Instruction Programmes: Perspectives from South East Asian Universities (pp. 15–28). Routledge.

      Simons, M. and Smits, T. (eds) (2020) Language Education and Emotions: Research into Emotions and Language Learners, Language Teachers and Educational Processes (1st edn). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003019497

      Smit, U. (2023) English-medium instruction (EMI). ELT Journal ccad018, https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccad018

      Thompson, G., Aizawa, I., Curle, S. and Rose, H. (2022) Exploring the role of self-efficacy beliefs and learner success in English medium instruction. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 25 (1), 196–209.

      Zhou, S., Fung, D. and Thomas, N. (2023) Towards deeper learning in EMI lectures: The role of English proficiency and motivation in students’ deep processing of content knowledge. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2248078

      Part 1

      The Impact of Affective Factors on Identity and Wellbeing

      1Japanese Women Professors Traversing Internationalized Classroom Worlds: A Scary and Challenging, yet Fun and Necessary Adventure

      Annette Bradford

      Introduction

      This chapter has as its genesis a conversation between a Japanese friend and myself in Tokyo. We were chatting about our experiences teaching English-medium instruction (EMI) classes and my friend casually mentioned that she had to ‘change herself’ when teaching in the environments where she now found herself. As I reflected on the conversation, I pondered the ways she might have to change and the reasons why. I wanted to know if others teaching in English felt this way and I wondered how women professors were affected in light of the gendered constraints in corporate and social structures in Japan (see e.g. Fujimura-Fanselow & Kameda, 1995; Kodate & Kodate, 2016; Nagatomo, 2016).

      At around the same time as the conversation with my friend, I read an article by Vivienne Anderson (2014) that calls for a re-thinking of teaching and learning in internationalized higher education (HE). Anderson points out that ‘static assumptions about so-called Western versus non-Western teaching and learning approaches or local versus international students are inadequate for responding to the complex histories, geographies and identities that meet and mingle in our higher education institutions’ (2014: 637). This resonated with me. In Japan, HE classrooms have become much more diverse over the last 15 years. The classrooms in which professors such as my friend are teaching may be conducted in Japanese, English, or in a mix of the two languages. They may consist of any combination of locally enrolled Japanese or non-Japanese students or international students who joined via a partner university agreement or simply enrolled independently. There are students who have committed to a full EMI experience, and others who are just dipping their toes in the water with one or two classes, and then, there are those on short-term study sojourns. Naturally, the students’ personal, academic and language backgrounds are diverse, as are the backgrounds and experiences of the professors teaching them. Anderson concludes her paper by highlighting ‘the importance of responsive teaching that is open both to students’ needs and their diversity’ (2014: 649). A responsive teacher is likely to change their approaches to teaching in the internationalized classroom. Is this what my friend meant? Or was the change she mentioned somehow deeper, an affective change that she felt as she experienced new worlds? Or, was I simply reading too much into a simple comment?

      Research posits that women’s, especially Japanese women’s, views of self are more relational than are those of men (see Ichimoto, 2004; Sparrow, 2000). In other words, women are more likely to view themselves in relation to others, thus possibly creating a deeper desire to ‘change themselves’ in different contexts. So, taking both the conversation about EMI classrooms and Anderson’s (2014) study as points of departure, I decided to speak to women professors teaching in Japan’s EMI programs to find out how they experience their internationalized classrooms. All of the women who relate their experiences in this chapter are personally known to me through networks in the Japanese EMI community, and they all share the signifiers: ‘professor teaching in English in Japan’, ‘ethnically Japanese citizen’, and ‘identify as a woman’. Although all others teaching in EMI classes must also almost certainly experience change when shifting from teaching in Japanese to teaching in English, these signifiers are appropriate to bound the current study given the focus of my points of departure and interest in affective change. Following Morley et al. (2021), whose work addresses the affective economy of transnational academics, in this chapter, ‘affect’ is defined as ‘emotions, responses, reactions, and feelings that are construed as relational and transpersonal rather than located solely in the interior individual subject’ (2021: 768).

      This chapter proceeds with a discussion of the theoretical framework that guides the study and foregrounds the complexities of navigating internationalized classrooms. The chapter then turns to literature about how faculty members experience EMI, how gender intersects with EMI, and how transnational academics, particularly women academics, encounter the workplace in Japan. This review serves to provide context for understanding how the participants in the study presented in the second half of the chapter encounter, manage and traverse their classroom worlds.

      Framework: World-Traveling

      Like Anderson (2014), I look at the study participants’ narratives through the theoretical lens of Lugones’ (1987) ‘world-traveling’. As a transnational academic, I find the notion of traversing cultures and worlds engaging; and to use a framework that emphasizes fluidity and dexterity as necessary when inhabiting those worlds seems apt. Furthermore, Lugones conceptualized world-traveling to highlight the experiences of women.

      In discussing the term ‘world’, Lugones (1987: 9) relates a time when she was in a state of confusion over simultaneously having and not having a particular attribute. She came to realize that she displayed that attribute in certain worlds, but not in others. Worlds are social constructions. They may constitute whole societies or smaller constructions within. An inhabitant may or may not understand or agree with the construction of themselves in any particular world. Lugones (1987: 9–10) explains that people can ‘travel’ between these worlds and can inhabit more than one of them simultaneously. Travel between worlds involves shifting and literal change, ‘from being one person to being a different person’ (1987: 11) who has a different personality or character and uses space and language differently. Importantly, Lugones points out that ‘one does not pose as someone else’ in different worlds, there is no ‘underlying I’ (1987: 11–12), rather one is different. As we travel across and inhabit worlds, we retain memories of our different, plural selves.

      Lugones (1987: 12–13) explains that a person may be at ease in a world in four ways: if one (1) is a fluent speaker who knows the language and norms; (2) agrees with the behavioral norms; (3) is bonded with others; and (4) has a shared history with others. A person may be at ease in one or more of these ways at the same time. However, Lugones cautions against ethnocentrism when one is at ease in all of these ways. She notes that such a person may have ‘no inclination to travel across worlds’. A person may privilege a world if they experience a sense of agency in that particular world, or they may disown a world if no agency is felt. Alternatively, one may simply privilege a world because one feels at ease within it.

      World-traveling highlights the experiences of outsiders to mainstream life. Lugones’ work is situated within feminist borderlands literature and relates the stories of women of color in the United States as they necessarily and flexibly move through multiple worlds as part of everyday life. However, the world-traveling lens also finds relevance when thinking about education and pedagogy. For example, when speaking about queer youth of color pedagogy, Cruz (2018: 4) describes how world-traveling highlights the plurality of selves that educational research often masks. It interrupts the ‘binary relations of race, gender, and often sexuality’. Likewise, Clandinin, Huber and Murphy (Clandinin et al., 2011; Murphy et al., 2012) use the framework to make sense of the tensions children experience as they move between the worlds of family and school. And in his short essay about teaching blind children, Hull (2004: 103) puts forth teaching as a ‘trans-world activity’. He emphasizes how important it is for teachers to have insight into worlds in which the nature of knowledge might be ‘different from the one in which the teacher lives’, so that they may become effective ‘trans-world educators’ and ‘trans-world professionals’ (2004: 105). These last two terms are particularly relevant to the study of EMI. Professors in our internationalized classrooms should be trans-world educators who are able to skillfully enter into several worlds, cognizant of how they construct themselves and are constructed and understood by others.

      Literature

      Experiencing EMI

      Research about how faculty members experience EMI is not as comprehensive as research about student experiences. However, there are growing bodies of work in the areas of professional development and identity construction that point to changes professors may undergo when teaching in English. A recurring concern is that spontaneity and improvisation are lost, turning ‘good lecturers into bad communicators’ in the EMI classroom (Tange, 2010: 144). Studies also show that despite often feeling some uncertainty about their ability to teach in English, professors have mixed opinions as to whether teaching practices should change when making the move away from their first language (L1) (e.g. Bradford et al., 2022; Volchenkova et al., 2022). That said, professors generally find utility in pedagogical training, and they report that interdisciplinary teacher collaboration creates positivity toward EMI (e.g. Alhassan, 2021; Lu, 2022; Volchenkova et al., 2022).

      Professors might draw upon both their EMI lecturer identity and their L1 lecturer identity in the classroom, prioritizing one over the other in different situations. This might be, for example, in pursuit of solidarity with or authority over different groups of students, or to clarify cognitively challenging concepts (see for instance, Kling Soren, 2013; Moncada-Comas, 2022). Although research points out the need for more studies that consider how the interplay of professors’ different professional identities impacts upon their capacity and willingness in the EMI classroom (Trent, 2017).

      Gender and EMI

      Less has been written about how gender intersects with EMI and this work focuses on students, not teachers. Research has mixed results with studies showing no significant gender differences in student attitudes toward EMI (Ismail et al., 2011; Macaro & Akincioglu, 2018). But, they find that women have higher expectations for EMI in terms of setting them apart from their peers and enabling them to move on in their education and career (e.g. Hengsadeekul et al., 2014; Macaro & Akincioglu, 2018). This mirrors a long-held understanding in Japan that international activities like learning English and studying abroad are freeing for Japanese women, releasing them from societal constraints and opening employment opportunities (Ichimoto, 2004; Nagatomo, 2012).

      Looking closely at EMI in Japan, Shimauchi (2018) noted that, just as is the case with English-language learning programs, English-taught programs appeal disproportionally to women students. She also found that male and female students differed in their conceptualizations of what it means to be ‘international’. The male students displayed fixed identities as Japanese, contrasting themselves with their counterparts overseas. They stated that they can look internationally or become internationalized when needed, while retaining their Japaneseness. The female students, on the other hand, spoke of transformation into ‘international Japanese’ or ‘global citizens’ (Shimauchi, 2018: 190). The male student conceptualization of ‘international’ echoes the official Japanese government position on internationalization (Japanese: kokusaika) seen frequently in policy documents. This policy position advocates the maintenance of Japanese identity and a promotion of national achievements alongside becoming internationally competitive (see, for example, Global Human Resources Development Council, 2012). We might expect similar feelings about EMI and internationalization to surface in conversations with faculty members working in EMI environments.

      Being a transnational academic in Japan

      Recent work by Louise Morley and her colleagues (Morley et al., 2018; Morley et al., 2019; Morley et al., 2021) devotes much space to bringing into focus the shadowier elements of HE internationalization, particularly in Japan. Although Morley’s research spotlights academics teaching outside of their birth countries, the experiences of these academics hold relevance to the situations of the women interviewed for this chapter as the themes they illuminate likely have bearing on the affective labor (i.e. work that a person does to suppress their feelings so as to create a desired feeling in

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1