Exploring University Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions of English as a Medium of Instruction Experiences in Kazakhstan: Language Management, Language Practices and Language Ideology

Abstract

English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in higher education has become a widespread phenomenon in non-English speaking countries during our era of globalization. Hence, during the past decade, Kazakhstan has developed a strategic goal to implement an EMI policy, despite English being a foreign language in the country. Accordingly, as EMI is a considerably new approach in Kazakhstan, the aim of this study was to explore teachers’ and students’ perceptions of their EMI experiences by focusing on the interplay between language management (LM), language practices (LP) and language ideology (LI) framed as a tripartite theory by Spolsky (2004). A qualitative case study design employing semi-structured interviews and document analysis was adopted for this research. Four teachers and six undergraduate students of EMI programs from the Department of Natural Sciences of one Kazakhstani national university participated in this research. Moreover, information from the official website and policy documents from the university were used for document analysis of EMI policy. The findings reveal that participants had positive LI by valuing EMI as a beneficial tool for language development and supporting English-only practices. However, they encountered challenges during LP because of their low mastery of English and the university administrators neglected the participants’ linguistic difficulties which mean they lacked an appropriate LM system in the EMI environment. Therefore, to conduct LP, teachers used transglanguaging methods to support students’ insufficient English levels for comprehension purposes. Meanwhile, students reported that continuing LP in EMI and teachers’ emotional support contributed to their English-language development. Overall, even though LI conflicted with LP as English-only beliefs mismatched with translanguaging and LM neglected LP challenges, LI about benefits of English matched with students’ language enhancement in LP. Ultimately, this study suggests improving the quality assurance of the EMI policy for administrators and conducting further research on the LM system of institutions....