Research project English Medium Instruction in Academic Lectures: A cross-cultural exchange
English Medium Instruction in Academic Lectures: A cross-cultural exchange of student and teacher perspectives on in-class and online education.
This project examines the teaching and learning of academic content at university level in Sweden and Japan when English is used as the language of instruction. The project aims to elicit both student and teacher perspectives of use of English as a second language in teaching and learning. While the main focus is on listening comprehension on the part of students and teachers’ spoken delivery during lectures, topics including online learning and course literature are also involved. The project is co-funded by STINT (Sweden) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) Kakenhi Grant-in-Aid (Japan).
Project description
The three-year project focuses on three aspects of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education relevant to both in-class and online teaching and learning. Year One concentrates on student perceptions of EMI for in-class and online lectures in Sweden and Japan to determine the respective challenges students face and the coping strategies they adopt. These insights will inform Years Two and Three of the project. Year Two focuses on EMI lecturers who have Japanese or Swedish first language and have varying degrees of English proficiency and who lecture in English, their second language (L2)), in order to better understand how they plan and deliver EMI lectures and how they support student learning, both for in-person and online teaching. Year Three centers on EMI lecturers who have English as their first language to understand how these native users adapt their language use to cater to student audiences who do not have English as their L1. Each year of the project has specific priorities and will produce unique findings. Data will be collected through student surveys, student focus groups, lecturer interviews, lecture observation using an a priori checklist, and analysis of lecture transcripts. The project will be relevant to students, teachers, and administrators involved in EMI. As a cross-cultural study of EMI lectures, this project will have resonance in broader Asian and European contexts.
Project members
Project managers
Joseph Siegel
Professor
Members
Beyza Björkman
Professor
Linda Eriksson
PhD student
Mats Deutschmann
Professor
Damon Brewster
Associate Professor
Izumi Yamasaki
Associate Professor