English as a medium of instruction in Kazakhstani higher education: a case study

ABSTRACT

In the era of the globalization of the English language, Kazakhstan has strategically implemented English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in higher education. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to explore teachers’ and students’ perceptions of their EMI experiences, focusing on the interplay between language management (LM), language practices (LP) and language ideology (LI) (Spolsky, 2004). Thus, a qualitative case study design was employed wherein four teachers and six undergraduate students from one Department of Natural Sciences were interviewed. Moreover, information from the official website and policy documents of the university were used for document analysis of its EMI policy. The findings revealed that participants had a positive LI towards EMI as this is helpful for language development, although many of them encountered challenges during LP due to their low mastery of English. The university’s LM system was unsuitable as administrators neglected to address the participants’ linguistic difficulties related to EMI which led to the use of the translanguaging method for comprehension purposes during LP activities. The participants also reported that continuing LP in EMI and teachers’ emotional support contributed to students’ language improvement. Ultimately, this study suggests that administrators improve the quality assurance of the EMI policy.

KEYWORDS:

• English as a medium of instruction (EMI)
• language management (LM)
• language practices (LP)
• language ideology (LI)
• translanguaging

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my very great appreciation to Professor Bridget Goodman, my thesis supervisor, for her valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning and development of my manuscript. A sincere thanks also to Miriam Sciala for her diligent proofreading of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kymbat Yessenbekova

Kymbat Yessenbekova a graduate of the Multilingual Education program at Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan and am currently working as a teacher at the Department of Foreign Languages and Translation at Abai Myrzhakhmetov University, Kokshetau, Kazakhstan. My research interests are English as a medium of instruction, English as a foreign language, translanguaging and bi/multilingualism.