English Medium Instruction (EMI) from the perspectives of students at a technical university in Turkey

ABSTRACT

In parallel with the spread of English as an international language of communication, English Medium Instruction (EMI) has rapidly gained importance in Turkish tertiary education but also brought some controversy among students and academics. It is important to clarify the prevailing situation in order to enhance the quality of instruction. Descriptive in essence, the present study examines the results of a survey about EMI courses in the context of a technical university conducted in 2018 to understand students’ attitudes towards EMI courses, the challenges they face and the suggestions they make for improvement. Although there are some positive aspects of EMI, such as getting ready for work life where English has become prevalent and the presence of a large number of resources and articles in English, there are also some possible challenges, such as linguistic challenges inherent in students’ language learning history, some lecturers having limited English proficiency and ineffective courses. Although it is deemed prestigious to offer EMI courses, some changes are necessary. Taking students’ views into consideration, some suggestions are providing intensive English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses to help students cross the linguistic barrier and equipping lecturers with the necessary skills before appointing them to EMI courses.

KEYWORDS:

• English medium instruction
• English language
• higher education
• university students
• Turkey

Disclosure statement

A version of this article was presented at the 15th International Bilkent University School of English Language Conference in Ankara, Turkey, 29–30 June 2018. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Arzu Ekoç

Arzu Ekoç was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1983. She received her BA degree from the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies from Boğaziçi University in 2005 and her Master’s in ELT from Istanbul University in 2008. She completed her PhD in ELT at Istanbul University in 2013. She has been working as an English lecturer (PhD) at Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey, since 2006. Her research interests are learner identity, higher education and continuing education, discourse analysis, EAP and second-language writing.