Students’ Experiences of English-Medium Courses at Tertiary Level: A Case in Southern Turkey

Author :  

Year-Number: 2019-Volume 11, Issue 1
Language : null
Konu :
Number of pages: 61-70
Mendeley EndNote Alıntı Yap

Abstract

Keywords

Abstract

Universities offering EMI programmes have been gaining popularity at tertiary level. In line with the increase in the number of these programmes, there appears to be an increasing interest in investigating the effectiveness of EMI programmes. This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of EMI programmes through undergraduate students’ views in a state university located in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. The data were gathered from fourth year undergraduate students in the spring semester of the 2017-2018 academic year. These students represented this, relatively new, university’s first groups to be graduating from EMI programmes. The participants of the study were six males and six females. The present study employed the descriptive survey research design. The students were selected through quota sampling. In this study, focus group interviews were carried out in order to collect rich, descriptive data with regards to students’ views on EMI. Recent studies carried out at tertiary level and reports prepared by the institutions were analysed in order to determine semi-structured interview questions, and eight questions were designed to reveal students’ views on EMI programmes. The data gathered through focus group meetings were analysed through content analysis. The findings suggest most of the participants said that the contribution of EMI programmes to the English required for the students’ subject was big, and EMI programmes had an important effect on students’ motivation. However; most of the participants stated that their proficiency in English had not had a steady improvement throughout their education.

Keywords


  • Aguilar, M., & Rodríguez, R. (2012). Lecturer and student perceptions on CLIL at a Spanish university. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 15(2), 183-197. doi: 10.1080/13670050.2011.615906

  • Airey, J., Lauridsen, K.M., Räsänen, A., Salö, L., & Schwach, V. (2017). The expansion of English-Medium Instruction in the Nordic countries: Can top-down university language policies encourage bottom-up disciplinary literacy goals? Higher Education, 73(4), 561-576. doi: 10.1007/s10734-015-9950-2

  • Aslan, M. (2018). The debate on English-medium instruction and globalisation in the Turkish context: A sociopolitical perspective. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(7), 602-616. doi: 10.1080/01434632.2017.1417413

  • Bolton, K., Botha, W., & Bacon-Shone, J. (2017). English-medium instruction in Singapore higher education: Policy, realities and challenges, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38(10), 913-930. doi:

  • Bolton, K., & Kuteeva, M. (2012). English as an academic language at a Swedish university: Parallel language use and the ‘threat’ of English. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 33(5), 429–447. doi:

  • British Council/TEPAV. (2015). The state of English in higher education in Turkey: A baseline study. Ankara: Yorum Basın Yayın. Retrieved from http://www.britishcouncil.org.tr/sites/default/files /he_baseline_study_book_web_-_son.pdf

  • Byun, K., Chu, H., Kim, M., Park, I., Kim, S., & Jung, J. (2011). English-medium teaching in Korean higher education: Policy debates and reality. Higher Education, 62(4), 431–449. doi: 10.1007/s10734-010-9397-4

  • Cho, D. W. (2012). English-medium instruction in the university context of Korea: Tradeoff between teaching outcomes and media-initiated university ranking. The Journal of Asia TEFL, 9(4), 135-163. Retrieved from http://www.asiatefl.org/main/download_pdf.php?i=84&c=1419299249&fn=9_4_06.pdf

  • Dafouz, E., & Camacho-Minano, M. M. (2016). Exploring the impact of English-medium instruction on university student academic achievement: The case of accounting. English for Specific Purposes, 44, 57-67. doi: 10.1016/j.esp.2016.06.001

  • Dafouz, E., Camacho, M., & Urquia, E. (2014). ‘Surely they can't do as well’: A comparison of business students’ academic performance in English-medium and Spanish-as-first-language-medium programmes, Language and Education, 28(3), 223-236. doi: 10.1080/09500782.2013.808661

  • Dearden, J., & Macaro, E. (2016). Higher education teachers’ attitudes towards English Medium Instruction: A three-country comparison. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 6(3), 455-486. doi: 10.14746/sllt.2016.6.3.5

  • Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D., & Sierra, J. (2013). Globalisation, internationalisation, multilingualism and linguistic strains in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 38(9), 1407–1421. doi:

  • Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2012). How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education (8th edition). New York: McGraw Hill.

  • Haigh, M. (2014). From Internationalisation to Education for Global Citizenship: A Multi-Layered History. Higher Education Quarterly, 68(1). doi: 10.1111/hequ.12032

  • Hellekjaer, G. O. (2010). Lecture comprehension in English-medium higher education. Hermes, 45, 11–34. doi: 10.7146/hjlcb.v23i45.97343

  • Huang, Y-P. (2018). Learner Resistance to English-medium instruction practices: A qualitative case study. Teaching in Higher Education, 23(4), 435-449. doi: 10.1080/13562517.2017.1421629

  • Jarvad, P. (2001). Det Danske Sprogs Status i 1990’erne med Særligt Henblik på Domænetab. [The Status of the Danish Language in the 1990s with Special Reference to Domain Loss.] Dansk Sprognævns Skrifter 32, Copenhagen: Dansk Sprognævn [The Danish Language Council]. Retrieved from https://dsn.dk/arkiv/meddelelser/dansk_status.pdf

  • Jensen, C., Denver, L., Mees, I., & Werther, C. (2013). Students’ attitudes to lecturers’ English in English- medium higher education in Denmark. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 13(1), 87-112. Retrieved from http://ojs.ub.gu.se/ojs/index.php/njes/article/view/1798

  • Jensen, C., & Thøgersen, J. (2011). Danish university lecturers’ attitudes towards English as the medium of instruction. Ibérica, 22(22), 13-33. Retrieved from https://www.redalyc.org/html/2870/287023888002/

  • Kırkgöz, Y. (2005). English language teaching in Turkey: Challenges for the 21st century. In G. Braine (Ed.), Teaching English to the World: History, Curriculum, and Practice (pp. 159-175). New York: Routledge.

  • Kırkgöz, Y. (2009). Students’ and lecturers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of foreign language instruction in an English-medium university in Turkey. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(1), 81-93. doi: 10.1080/13562510802602640

  • Kırkgöz, Y. (2014). Students’ perceptions of English language versus Turkish language used as the medium of instruction in higher education in Turkey. Turkish Studies, 9(12), 443-459. doi: 10.7827/TurkishStudies.7596

  • Kim, A., Son, Y. D., & Sohn, S. Y. (2009). Conjoint analysis of enhanced English Medium Instruction for college students. Expert Systems with Applications, 36(6), 10197-10203. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2009.01.080

  • Kirkpatrick, A. (2017). The languages of higher education in East and Southeast Asia: Will EMI lead to Englishisation? In Fenton-Smith, B., Humphreys, P. & Walkinshaw, I. (Eds.) English medium instruction in higher education in Asia-Pacific (pp. 21-36). Springer International Publishing.

  • Klaassen, R., & Bos, M. (2010). English Language Screening for Scientific Staff at Delft University of Technology. Hermes-Journal of Language and Communication Studies, 45, 61-75. doi: 10.7146/hjlcb.v23i45.97347

  • Lee, G. J. (2014). Why students don’t participate in English Medium Instruction classes in a Korean university: A case study. English Teaching, 69(1), 91-117. Retrieved from http://journal.kate.or.kr/wpcontent/uploads/2015/01/kate_69_1_5.pdf

  • Li, C. (2014). Development, problems and solutions: a critical review of current situation of college English language education in mainland China. Arab World English Journal, 5(3), 291-303. Retrieved from https://awej.org/images/AllIssues/Volume5/Volume5number3September/22.pdf

  • Lueg, K., & Lueg, R. (2015). Why do students choose English as a medium of instruction? A Bourdieusian perspective on the study strategies of non-native English speakers. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 14(1), 5–30. doi: 10.5465/amle.2013.0009

  • Lueg, K. (2018). The internationalization of higher education in Europe: a discussion of English as a medium of instruction and its implications for (in)equalities. Culture, Practice & Europeanization, 3(1), 47-67. Retrieved from https://www.uni-flensburg.de/fileadmin/content/seminare/soziologie/dokumente /culture-practice-and-europeanization/vol.3-issue-1/lueg.pdf

  • Macaro, E., & Akincioglu, M. (2017). Turkish university students’ perceptions about English Medium Instruction: exploring year group, gender and university type as variables. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(3), 256-270. doi: 10.1080/01434632.2017.1367398

  • Macaro, E., Akincioglu, M., & Dearden, J. (2016). English Medium Instruction in universities: A collaborative experiment in Turkey. Studies in English Language Teaching, 4(1), 51–76. doi: 10.22158/selt.v4n1p51

  • Macaro, E. Curle, S., Pun, J., An, J., & Dearden, J. (2018). A systematic review of English Medium Instruction in higher education. Language Teaching, 51(1), 36-76. doi: 10.1017/S0261444817000350

  • Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.

  • Ozer, O., & Tanrıseven, I. (2016). The effect of portfolio-based writing assessment on the development of writing skills of EFL students. International Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 8(3), 35-45. doi: 10.15345/iojes.2016.03.004

  • Salö, L. (2010) Engelska eller svenska? En kartläggning av språksituationen inom högre utbildning och forskning [English or Swedish? A Survey of the Language Situation in Higher Education and Research] Stockholm: Språkrådet.Retrieved from http://www.sprakochfolkminnen.se/omoss/publikationer/institutets-publikationer/sprak-och-samhalle/2016-09-14-engelska-eller-svenska-enkartlaggning-av-spraksituationen-inom-hogre-utbildning-och-forskning.html

  • Santos, A., Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2018). Attitudes and anxieties of business and education students towards English: some data from the Basque Country. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 31(1), 94-110. doi:

  • Sert, N. (2008). The language of instruction dilemma in the Turkish context. An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, 36(2), 156–171. doi: 10.1016/j.system.2007.11.006

  • Tange, H. (2010). Caught in the Tower of Babel: University lecturers' experiences with internationalisation. Language and Intercultural Communication, 10(2), 137-149. doi: 10.1080/14708470903342138

  • Turhan, B., & Kırkgöz, Y. (2018). Motivation of engineering students and lecturers toward English Medium Instruction at tertiary level in Turkey. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 14(1), 261-277. Retrieved from http://www.jlls.org/index.php/jlls/article/view/842

                                                                                                                                                                                                        
  • Article Statistics