Taking up EMI in Higher Education: The Complexities of Teacher Emotions

ABSTRACT

Given the status of English as a lingual franca and the ongoing trend of internationalization of higher education, English medium instruction (EMI) has become increasingly popular in many EFL university settings. However, taking up EMI teaching can be an emotionally complex and daunting task for disciplinary teachers. Informed by a post-structuralist perspective, this Forum paper argues for the need to embrace an emotional focus in current EMI teacher education. Based on the critical analysis of a Chinese case, the paper presents and analyzes the complexity of EMI teacher emotions entangled with different power relations and rules in university contexts. The paper culminates in a critical discussion on how to foster and promote EMI teachers’ emotional awareness and intelligence with a view to facilitating their ongoing classroom practice and professional development.

KEYWORDS:

• English as a medium of instruction
• teacher development
• teacher emotions

Additional information

Funding

This article is based on a research project supported by a start-up research grant (SRG2020-00028-FED) of University of Macau.

Notes on contributors

Rui Yuan

Rui (Eric) Yuan is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education of University of Macau. His research focuses on teacher education, particularly teacher cognitions, identities, and emotions, as well as English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education. His publications have appeared in a number of international journals, including Teaching and Teacher Education and TESOL Quarterly.