English-medium instruction in Asian business schools: a case study

ABSTRACT

Business schools in Asia frequently use English as the medium of instruction. One such school is the School of Business and Management (SBM) of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) which is recognised as one of the leading business schools in Indonesia. Doubt had been expressed whether under current English language (EL) entry requirements students have sufficient competence to complete course requirements satisfactorily. This research, limited to postgraduate programmes, concluded that indeed most students lacked the EL skills to perform well. Some suggestions for remedial action are offered.

KEYWORDS:

• Asian business schools
• English language skills
• English-medium tertiary education
• language support
• Indonesian universities

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge a grant from the SBM of the ITB that allowed us to carry out this research between March and May 2017.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Adita Pritasari http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6641-894X

Notes

1. The syllabus content of both programmes is modelled closely on best practice in business and management schools throughout the world. Students are required to read up-to-date articles and books in academic English and complete written assignments in English. We looked carefully at the range of material that students were expected to master, but have not described them in this paper. Details are available on request.

2. We are all members of staff of SBM. Adita Pritasari, a native Indonesian speaker, is a junior lecturer who after a first degree in Industrial Engineering, ITB, did the MSM programme in SBM and was then employed first as a tutor then as a junior lecturer. She has experience, therefore, as a student and as an instructor, and this experience has informed our research in particular in relation to how we have conceived the problems to be addressed and the manner in which we have questioned staff and students. Hendy Reinaldo, also a native Indonesian speaker, is a junior part-time lecturer who after a first degree in Civil Engineering, ITB, did the MBA programme in SBM. C. W. Watson is a native English speaker who is fluent in Indonesian and has been employed as an Adjunct Professor in SBM since 2009 teaching on the MSM and DSM programmes, and is consequently also a closely involved participant.

3. The results of interviews with administrative and academic staff have not been included in this paper but are available on request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the School of Business and Management, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia.