Ģ��ֱ��

In the trend towards globalisation in higher education (HE), EMI has grown rapidly in China since the 2000s, while the outcomes of EMI have not necessarily met the stakeholders’ expectations. In addition, due to the complex developmental landscape of HE in China, there has been insufficient research attention to the Chinese EMI participants in non-top tier or ordinary universities, especially in developing regions.

Focusing on the under-researched group of Chinese EMI medical teachers and students from an ordinary university, this study aims to approach EMI through the lens of identity and language ideology and to diversify the understanding of forms of EMI provision in and beyond China. Furthermore, given the disciplinary context of Clinical Medicine that requires the ability to combine theory and practice during clinical practicum in local hospitals, this study draws attention to the challenges and opportunities that EMI has brought to the medical teachers and students regarding their teaching and learning practices.

Inspired by post-structuralism theories, this study considers “identity” and “language ideology” as socially constructed and emerging in discourses. Thereby, qualitative enquiry is employed to obtain thick and in-depth descriptions of the participants’ experiences, feelings, and ideas about EMI medical education.

The following five key themes emerged in the interview data: 1). The centrality of medical English and medical expertise; 2). Advantages associated with EMI; 3). Challenges and perceived losses in EMI; 4). Competing ideologies of bilingualism in and beyond the EMI classroom; 5) Diverse beliefs of languages as capitals and identity negotiation. These offer important implications for the integration of content and language, for a better understanding of perceptions of English for pedagogy, and for bilingual skills and practices for intra- and international/cultural communication.

In particular, drawing attention to this group of Chinese EMI participants, the study calls for a contextual and critical understanding of EMI approaches from the sociocultural perspective by asking what EMI mean to its teachers or learners and how they shape their EMI practices to make sense of themselves in local contexts.

The Dissertation has been published in JYU Dissertations, number 625.
Link to the publication:

M.A. Paiwei Qin defends her doctoral dissertation in Applied Linguistics "Identity and language ideology of EMI medical teachers and students in China" 26.5.2023 in the lecture hall S212 at 12:00. Opponent is Professor Kristina Hultgren (The Open University, UK) and Custos is Professor Tarja Nikula-Jäntti (Ģ��ֱ��). The doctoral dissertation is held in English.

More information:

Paiwei Qin, Centre for Applied Language Studies
qinpa@student.jyu.fi/qinpaiwei@hotmail.com