Using the L1 in university-level EMI: attitudes among lecturers in Spain

Abstract

English medium instruction (EMI) is widespread in European universities. In most such contexts, students and teachers are able to communicate in at least one other language, generally the shared L1. Recent studies in English-speaking countries and postcolonial settings have suggested that attitudes towards L1 use in EMI are changing, and that multilingualism in the classroom is accepted or even positively embraced. However, some studies in expanding circle countries such as Spain and Turkey indicate that this trend is not universal. This paper uses evidence from narrative frames administered to 60 EMI lecturers at 5 universities in northern Spain to investigate their attitudes to L1 use, identify how these intersect with their age, years of experience in EMI, gender and subject area, and shed light on their conceptualisations of EMI and emergent practices. Around half believed that L1 use was not acceptable, while most of the others only allowed the L1 in highly circumscribed conditions (to repair breakdowns in communication, to foster empathy outside the classroom, or to refer to local phenomena). Our evidence reflects the struggle to further the use of English in EMI settings where this language is a relative newcomer.

Keywords:

• English
• bilingual education
• multilingualism
• language awareness
• teacher perceptions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes

1 Various authors have attempted to make a distinction between English medium instruction (EMI) and Integration of Content and Language in Higher Education (ICLHE) or Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in higher education (Aguilar, 2017). It is fair to say that the CLIL paradigm dominates in school education in Europe, where the curriculum makes provision for learners’ language needs. However, EMI, that is, simple delivery of the course in English, has long been the dominant paradigm in higher education, since students are assumed to have already acquired sufficient competence in English to manage. As in similar contexts reported elsewhere (Aguilar, 2017; Airey, 2012; Pecorari et al., 2011), with a few exceptions, the lecturers in this study consider that they do not teach English, except by providing exposure, and that any support they give is incidental to their content teaching role. We therefore follow mainstream recent literature in grouping together under the heading of EMI academic subjects taught in English at universities where this is not the majority language (Macaro et al., 2018).

2 Lecturers’ accounts are classified here by area (science/arts), and age.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ruth Breeze

Ruth Breeze is senior lecturer in English at the University of Navarra, Spain, and combines teaching with research as PI of the GradUN Research Group in the Instituto Cultura y Sociedad. Her most recent books are ‘Corporate Discourse’ (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015) and the edited volumes ‘Essential competencies for English-medium university teaching’ (Springer, 2016), ‘Power, persuasion and manipulation in specialised genres’ (Peter Lang, 2017), and ‘Imagining the peoples of Europe’ (John Benjamins, 2019). She teaches courses and supervises PhD candidates in the area of language education, and she has published widely on language teaching, CLIL, specialised languages, and discourse analysis.

Hanne Roothooft

Hanne Roothooft is junior lecturer at the Public University of Navarra (UPNA), Spain, where she teaches in the School of Education and Social Work. She has a BA/MA from KU Leuven, and a PhD from the University of Navarra on the roles of corrective feedback in language learning. She has participated in several funded research projects, and is currently involved in a locally-funded project to improve the teaching of language competences in primary English. Her recent publications include papers in System and Language Awareness.