Andy Kirkpatrick

The increasing use of EMI in Asian Universities: challenges and prospects

The role of English as a medium of instruction and an academic lingua franca in international universities outside the traditional English dominant societies of the UK, North America, and Australasia has become increasingly important over the last three decades. This is as true in the universities of Asia as it is in those of Europe. In this presentation I shall first consider the motivations for this increase in EMI programmes and then review the development of EMI programmes in a selection of universities across East and Southeast Asia. I shall address a number of related questions including the use of other languages and bilingual practices within EMI programmes and how the ‘E’ in EMI is being understood – as a native speaker variety of English or as English as an academic lingua franca. I shall also discuss the extent to which the universities have promoted EMI courses have (or have not) developed appropriate language policies which clearly articulate how English and other languages might most successfully be combined in EMI programmes.

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