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SUMMARY:Opening the Pandora Box of the “E” in EMI: A quest for standar
 dization\, ELF\, or something more? - Sin-Yi Chang\, PhD student\, Faculty
  of Education\, University of Cambridge
DTSTART:20200227T130000Z
DTEND:20200227T143000Z
UID:TALK139987@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Anne Helene Halbout
DESCRIPTION:English medium instruction (EMI) has been a widely adopted res
 ponse to the growing forces of globalization that shape part of the higher
  education reality in the 21st century. However\, while EMI has received m
 uch enthusiasm on the policy level\, defining what the English language me
 ans remains a highly contested process. To explore how the “E” in EMI 
 is unpacked\, in this presentation I draw attention to the tensions betwee
 n two conceptualizations of English in EMI settings: English as an idealiz
 ed\, homogenous entity\, and English as a lingua franca (ELF). Drawing on 
 classroom observation and focus group data collected from a larger study\,
  I show how lecturers at a Taiwanese university construct and communicate 
 knowledge through a diverse set of languages\, semiotic resources\, and mo
 dalities. Specifically\, English is collectively shared by all participant
 s in the classrooms\, creatively and strategically employed for meaning-ma
 king. Nonetheless\, the majority of the students aspired for “standards
 ” that resembled North American English\, even though being fully aware 
 of the controversies surrounding native-speaker discourse. The uncomfortab
 le reality unveils some affordances and constraints of ELF: while ELF is a
  pragmatic solution to facilitate communication between speakers of differ
 ent languages\, it is still ultimately about English\, which may implicitl
 y\, albeit unintentionally\, strengthen the hegemony of the language and f
 urther the depth of English penetration. This presentation concludes by bo
 rrowing inspirations from current decolonization movements in higher educa
 tion\, highlighting how thinking in “decolonial” ways may be useful in
  challenging the “business as usual” model commonly adopted in policy-
 making\, teaching\, and research.
LOCATION:Room 326\, Raised Faculty Building\, MMLL\, Sidgwick Site\, CB3 9
 DA
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