Professional development and the interactional accomplishment of emi expertise

Resumen

Abstract This thesis looks at the inner workings of a teacher training initiative for English medium instruction (EMI) through the analysis of interactional data. It takes a social constructivist perspective in order to study the process of EMI teacher development and to shed light on how it is co-constructed in interaction. In Chapter 1 the theoretical roots and historical antecedents of English medium instruction are set forth, followed by an overview of different approaches to instruction in additional languages at university, including EMI, and ending with a focus on EMI teacher development, the area of this dissertation. Chapter 2 presents the objectives and research questions of the dissertation, while Chapter 3 focuses on ontological and epistemological aspects, as well as the principal theoretical framework of this thesis, being conversation analysis (CA). The methods are set forth in Chapter 4, including a description of the institutional context, the teacher development process and the participants, as well as a description of the processes employed in data collection, selection and analysis. The data and analysis are presented in Chapters 5 to 9. Firstly, Chapter 5 examines the participants’ initial shared worldviews of EMI, their underlying assumptions about language learning, and the consequences that these assumptions have on a practical level for EMI teaching. Chapter 6 focuses on how the planned EMI teacher development (EMITD) process is negotiated and organized by the participants. Chapter 7 examines situated social actions which create opportunities for the interactional accomplishment of EMI expertise. The presentation of a working hypothesis and heuristic for the study of EMI expertise in Chapter 8 offers a theoretical and methodological approach for the study of EMI expertise in other similar EMITD processes. Chapter 9 presents emerging findings with respect to the transformative potential of the EMITD process as well as the role of material artefacts in this process. Finally, in Chapter 10, a discussion of the major findings with respect to the three main research questions and emerging findings are presented. This is followed by a concluding section which provides practical applications and directions for future research. Very little previous research has examined EMI teacher training from a social constructivist and interactionist perspective. The data and analysis presented here provide evidence of the contribution of these frameworks for understanding how EMI teacher training actually occurs. By offering a view into the “nitty-gritty” of EMI teacher training, it provides unique findings as to how EMI teacher development is accomplished – made visible and co-constructed – in interaction. On one hand, the findings reveal existing language ideologies in relation to models of teaching and learning, as well as the repercussions such ideologies may have for how EMI is conceptualized and performed. The findings also reflect significant reinterpretation of the originally planned teacher training process and the roles of the participants, as well as the co-construction of participation frameworks which, at the onset of the process, do not facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration. Comparative analysis of both language ideologies and participation frameworks at the beginning and end of the professional development process suggests the transformative potential of the process. Another major finding involves the significant and varied roles of material artefacts throughout the EMI teacher development process, including the role of material artefacts in the interactional co-construction of EMI expertise. Finally, this dissertation develops a theoretically-derived heuristic tool for the study of the interactional accomplishment of EMI expertise and its application to interactional data collected during the study. This tool is presented as a working hypothesis and as a first approximation to the conceptualization of the interactional accomplishment of EMI expertise, as an aid to future interactional research in this area.