Emi a assignatures no lingüístiques a l'educació superior a xinapercepcions dels participants i resultats d'aprenentatge

Resumen

The rapid spread of English Medium Instruction (EMI) worldwide has brought an increase in research on EMI courses and programs, particularly in mainland China, where EMI practices are still emerging and in need of further empirical investigation in comparison to European countries (Galloway, Kriukow & Numajiri, 2017; Hu & Lei, 2014; Hu, Li & Lei, 2014; Jiang, Zhang & May, 2019). Specifically, although much existing research has explored stakeholders’ beliefs and attitudes towards EMI, little is known on whether they may change over time or after completion of a course (Macaro et al., 2018). In addition, research on students’ Foreign Language (FL) or EMI learning motivation and on discipline-specific language and content learning are scant in EMI contexts (Lasagabaster, 2016; Macaro et al., 2018). With the aim of contributing to EMI research in mainland China and fill these research gaps, this dissertation examines the effectiveness of EMI practices in three non-linguistic disciplines (International Trade, Film Production, and Project Management) in three second-tier Chinese universities, where students' and lecturers' perceptions and EMI and FL motivation as well as discipline-specific language gains are studied through pre-post student and lecturer questionnaires, pre-post lecturer interviews, post students focus groups, pre-post student discipline-specific language and general English proficiency tests, and classroom observations over the course of one semester. The following four research questions guided this dissertation: (1) How do Chinese university students’ perceptions, expectations and attitudes towards EMI courses (i.e. International Trade, Film Production and Project Management) develop over the course of a semester? (2) How do Chinese university students’ EMI motivation, FL learning motivation and anxiety towards EMI courses (i.e. International Trade, Film Production and Project Management) develop over the course of a semester? (3) How do the three EMI lecturers in each course (i.e. International Trade, Film Production and Project Management) perceive and evaluate their EMI experience over the course of a semester? (4) What is the effect of EMI pedagogical practices in two courses (i.e. International Trade and Film Production) on Chinese university students’ discipline-specific and general language development? Results show that students’ attitudes were less positive at the end of the semester than at the beginning, indicating that they held higher expectations before taking the EMI courses. Similarly, students had generally high motivation at the pre and post stages, but it also tended to decline, whereas classroom anxiety remained high throughout the study. A number of differences emerged in terms of students’ perceptions among the different disciplines. The International Trade students generally had better attitudes and higher motivation than the Film Production and Project Management students. EMI lecturers held a positive attitude towards students’ EMI practices and supported the use of EMI but also expressed concerns that difficulties might appear in students’ learning practices mainly due to students’ low English proficiency. As regards the discipline-specific language and general English proficiency tests, results show that almost no progress was made as regards their general English grammar proficiency, as expected, and very modest gains were found in relation to writing, although remarkable development of discipline-specific vocabulary in writing and in the vocabulary tests was observed, particularly in the International Trade group. Findings are discussed in relation to classroom teaching practices in the three groups. Essentially, students’ prior English proficiency, the amount of EMI used in class, lecturers’ attention to language and the nature of the discipline being studied are all influential factors in students’ perceptions, attitudes and learning outcomes as well in lecturers’ perceptions of the EMI experience. Implications at the level of institutional policy and in relation to the need for language and content integration in EMI programs are also drawn.