Faculty and Students’ Perceptions of EMI and its Impact on Academic Content and Language Acquisition from the Participants’ Perspectives

Abstract

English being a lingua academica has resulted in its implementation as a medium of instruction (EMI) in many universities worldwide. This trend is equally relevant in the Kazakhstani context due to the internationalization reform of its higher education (HE) system; hence, one of its requirements is to increase the number of educational programs taught in English. However, despite the growth of EMI in the Kazakhstani HE, there appear to be several challenges in its implementation. Therefore, it is important to analyze how well EMI is being implemented in HE through the lens of two main types of stakeholders by investigating faculty and students' perceptions of EMI, their experiences with teaching and learning academic content and language through EMI, and its impact on content and language acquisition from the participants’ perspectives. The study employed a qualitative case study research design with individual and focus-group interviews with four faculty members and six students, respectively, in one Kazakhstani regional university offering EMI courses. The findings revealed that all participants mostly have positive perceptions towards EMI reflected through the role of English as a promoter of better career opportunities, lingua franca, the language of science, and internationalization. The findings also found that EMI courses are not conducted solely in English, and all interviewed participants use codeswitching and translanguaging for better content comprehension or due to lack of vocabulary. In addition, the findings showed that EMI has a negative impact on content acquisition; nonetheless, it helps to improve English language proficiency. The results of this research may benefit various stakeholders and contribute to the body of literature on EMI and its impact on content and language acquisition in the Kazakhstani context.