Article published in:
Problematizing Language Policy and Practice in EMI and Transnational Higher Education: Challenges and Possibilities
Edited by Curtis Green-Eneix, Peter I. De Costa and Wendy Li
[Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 44:2] 2021
► pp. 229–252

EMI and the international branch campus

Examining language ideologies, policies, and practices

| Texas A&M University at Qatar
| National Taiwan Normal University
| Texas A&M University
Transnational higher education (TNHE), often based on export models of Western-based universities and driven by neoliberal market economy agendas, has spread across the globe. One example of TNHE is Qatar’s Education City where six prestigious American international branch campuses (IBCs) all administer their degrees through English medium instruction (EMI). While there is a burgeoning amount of research investigating and problematizing issues in EMI higher education institutions, IBCs are a unique EMI setting due to their heavy reliance on importing faculty, staff, curricula and practices from their home campuses. Thus, this study takes an ethnographic case study approach to examine the language planning and policy and linguistic landscape at one IBC in Qatar. Drawing on multiple sources of data, the study reveals both the overt and covert language policies and ideologies of the institution and its various stakeholders, and the extent to which languages other than English are used and accepted.
Keywords: transnational higher education, EMI, ethnography of language planning and policy, translanguaging, Qatar
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Ethnography of language planning and policy (LPP): Theory and methodology
    • 2.1LPP and linguistic landscape (LL)
  • 3.Context of study: Qatar’s zigzagging monolingual language policies
    • 3.1LPP and ideology: EMI programs at IBCs
    • 3.2Research questions
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Setting: Study and faculty demographics
    • 4.2Participants
    • 4.3Research positionality
    • 4.4Data instruments and collection
    • 4.5Data analysis
  • 5.Findings and discussion
    • 5.1Top-down language policy: Curricular demands and English language requirements
    • 5.2Website data
    • 5.3Top-down versus bottom-up language policy: Linguistic landscape analysis
    • 5.4Faculty perspectives on language policy
    • 5.5Classroom practices of the math instructor
    • 5.6Student perspectives on language policy
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 07 July 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.20093.hil
References
Airey, J.
(2020) The content lecturer and English-medium instruction (EMI): Epilogue to the special issue on EMI in higher education. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(3), 340–346. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Amir issues law to promote and protect Arabic language
(2019, January 15). Qatar Tribune. https://​www​.qatar​-tribune​.com​/news​-details​/id​/152201
Barnawi, O. Z.
(2018) Neoliberalism and English language education policies in the Arabian Gulf. Routledge.Google Scholar
Block, D., & Moncada-Comas, B.
(2019) English-medium instruction in higher education and the ELT gaze: STEM lecturers’ self-positioning as NOT English language teachers. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Advance online publication. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Canagarajah, S.
(2011) Codemeshing in academic writing: Identifying teachable strategies of translanguaging. Modern Language Journal, 95(3), 401–417. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2013) Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cenoz, J., & Santos, A.
(2020) Implementing pedagogical translanguaging in trilingual schools. System, 921, Article 102273. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Crist, J. T.
(2015) Innovation in a small state: Qatar and the IBC cluster model of higher education. The Muslim World, 105(1), 93–115. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cross-Border Education Research Team
(2017) C-BERT branch campus listing [Data originally collected by Kevin Kinser and Jason E. Lane]. http://​cbert​.org​/resources​-data​/intl​-campus/
Dearden, J.
(2015) English as a medium of instruction – A growing global phenomenon. https://​ora​.ox​.ac​.uk​/objects​/uuid:4f72cdf8​-b2eb​-4d41​-a785​-4a283bf6caaa
Dearden, J., & Macaro, E.
(2016) Higher education teachers’ attitudes toward English medium instruction: A three-country comparison. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 61, 455–486. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
De Costa, P. I., Green-Eneix, C., & Li, W.
(2020) Problematizing EMI language policy in a transnational world. English Today. Advance online publication. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Golkowska, K. U.
(2016) Negotiating academic identity on a north American branch campus. Arab World English Journal, 7(4), 3–12. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, B. A.
(2014) Implementing English as a medium of instruction in a Ukrainian university: Challenges, adjustments, and opportunities. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learnings, 9(2), 130–141. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gorter, D.
(2013) Linguistic landscapes in a multilingual world. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 331, 190–212. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Graham, K. M., Elsheikh, A., & Eslami, Z. R.
(2020) Reflection on the mobilities, immobilities, inequalities, and traveling ideas in Qatar. The Journal of AsiaTEFL, 17(2), 626–634. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Graham, K. M., & Eslami, Z. R.
(2020) Translanguaging as an act of ethical caring in the U.S. international branch campus. In C. C. Lin & C. Zaccarini (Eds.), Internationalization in action: Leveraging diversity and inclusion in globalized classrooms (pp. 9–26). Peter Lang Publishing.Google Scholar
Graham, K. M., Eslami, Z. R., & Hillman, S.
(2021) From English as the medium to English as a medium: Perspectives of EMI students in Qatar. System. Advance online publication. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hillman, S.
(2019) ‘It will be funny [to speak Hindi]’: Travelling Englishes and perceptions about learning migrant languages in Qatar. Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration, 3(2), 177–200. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hillman, S., Graham, K. M., & Eslami, Z. R.
(2019) Teachers’ translanguaging ideologies and practices at an international branch campus in Qatar. English Teaching & Learning, 43(1), 41–63. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hornberger, N. H., Anzures, T. A., Hanks, H., Dueñas, F. K., & Lee, S.
(2018) Ethnography of language planning and policy. Language Teaching, 51(2), 152–186. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Horner, B., Lu, M., Royster, J. J., & Trimbur, J.
(2011) Language difference in writing: Toward a translingual approach. College English, 73(3), 303–21.Google Scholar
Hult, F. M.
(2018) Language policy and planning and linguistic landscapes. In J. W. Tollefson & M. Pérez-Milans (Eds.), Oxford handbook of language policy and planning (pp. 333–351). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jenkins, J.
(2014) English as lingua franca in the international university: The politics of academic English language policy. Routledge.Google Scholar
Jenkins, J., & Mauranen, A.
(2019a) Linguistic diversity on the EMI Campus. Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
(2019b) Researching linguistic diversity on English-medium campuses. In J. Jenkins & A. Mauranen (Eds.), Linguistic diversity on the EMI Campus (pp. 3–20). Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kane, T.
(2014) Whose lingua franca? The politics of language in transnational medical education. The Journal of General Education, 63(2–3), 94–112. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Karakaş, A., & Bayyurt, Y.
(2019) The scope of linguistic diversity in the language policies, practices, and linguistic landscape of a Turkish EMI university. In J. Jenkins & A. Mauranen (Eds.), Linguistic diversity on the EMI campus (pp. 96–121). Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Kim, E. G.
(2014) Korean engineering professors’ views on English language education in relation to English-medium instruction. The Journal of AsiaTEFL, 11(2), 1–33.Google Scholar
Lasagabaster, D., & Doiz, A.
(2018) Language errors in an English–medium instruction university setting: How do language versus content teachers tackle them? Porta Linguarum, 301, 131–148.Google Scholar
Levinson, B. A. U., & Sutton, M.
(2001) Introduction: Policy as/in practice – a sociocultural approach to the study of educational policy. In M. Sutton & B. A. U. Levinson (Eds.), Policy as practice: Toward a comparative sociocultural analysis of educational policy (pp. 1–22). Ablex.
Moini, J. S., Bikson, T. K., Neu, C. R., DeSisto, L., Al Hamadi, M., & Jabor Al Thani, S.
(2009) The reform of Qatar University. Rand-Qatar Policy Institute. https://​www​.rand​.org​/pubs​/monographs​/MG796​.html
Mustafawi, E., & Shaaban, K.
(2019) Language policies in education in Qatar between 2003 and 2012: From local to global then back to local. Language Policy, 181, 209–242. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pessoa, S., Mitchell, T. D., & Miller, R. T.
(2018) Scaffolding literacy at a branch campus of an American university in the Middle East: Interdisciplinary collaborations. In M. Rajakumar (Ed.), Western higher education in global contexts (pp.133–147). Lexington Books / Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Phan, L. -H.
(2017) Transnational education crossing ‘Asia’ and ‘the West’: Adjusted desire, transformative mediocrity, neo-colonial disguise. Routledge.Google Scholar
Qatar Foundation
(2020a) Education City in Qatar. https://​www​.qf​.org​.qa​/education​/education​-city/
(2020b) Academic Bridge Program. https://​www​.qf​.org​.qa​/education​/academic​-bridge​-program
Reh, M.
(2004) Multilingual writing: A reader-oriented typology – with examples from Lira Municipality (Uganda). International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1701, 1–41. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schreier, M.
(2012) Qualitative content analysis in practice. SAGE.Google Scholar
Shohamy, E.
(2006) Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shohamy, E., & Gorter, D.
(2009) Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery. Routledge.Google Scholar
Spolsky, B.
(2004) Language policy. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
(2009) Language management. Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Texas A&M University at Qatar
(2020) About. https://​www​.qatar​.tamu​.edu​/about/
Vora, N.
(2019) Teach for Arabia: American universities, liberalism, and transnational Qatar. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Zhang, Z.
(2018) English-medium instruction policies in China: Internationalisation of higher education. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(6), 542–555. CrossrefGoogle Scholar