Evolving Agendas in European English-Medium Higher Education

English medium-of-instruction (EMI) is transforming modern-day universities across the globe, creating increasingly complex linguistic and intercultural realities which lecturers, students and decision-makers must negotiate. Teaching subject matter at higher-education level through the medium of English, in countries where English is neither an official nor national language (e.g. the Netherlands, Germany), is a highly complex phenomenon fraught with challenges and benefits. EMI programmes are capable of transforming domestic degree programmes into platforms of intercultural teaching and learning by infusing them with greater numbers of international faculty and students. Equally however, EMI programmes pose a socio-linguistic, -cultural and -economic challenge by institutionalising English at higher-education level within a country and displacing somewhat national and minority languages. This book, the first of its kind, provides an up-to-date and empirically-informed exploration of these salient themes in Europe, based on significant empirical data gathered and analysed on the German EMI context.

In researching the marketplace for publications in the area of English-medium higher education, a number of primary and tangential sources of competition are identifiable (see below). Addressing the primary competition market firstly, empirical research published to-date is based predominantly on older data collected during a period when EMI programmes were still in their infancy, and therefore, more haphazard in nature. The most recent publications on EMI programmes in Europe adopt the edited book format, encompassing contributions from multiple geographies and an overview of multiple themes. Such volumes, therefore, lack the cohesion and depth of applied investigation that a monograph focused on a single geography and core themes can provide. Furthermore, all of the studies published thus far on the German context, in addition to the majority of studies published on other European contexts, explore the programmes from a solely top-down perspective, adopting a mainly quantitative orientation to describe programmes' salient features in a cataloguing approach. The data underlying the research presented in this proposed monograph adopts a mixed-methodology uncovering the perspectives of participatory groups across the top-down, bottom-up dichotomy to create a more valid portrayal of the contexts under investigation and advancing knowledge in the area. Additionally, a number of notable publications referring directly to the phenomenon of EMI programmes in Germany (2005-2012) are published solely in German, restricting significantly the accessibility of that literature to a non-German speaking audience. The proposed monograph, therefore, provides the most up-to-date, in-depth and widely accessible investigation of EMI programmes on the European and German context.Addressing the tangential competition market, a number of publications are identifiable. Such publications relate predominantly to other European or extra-European contexts where English is the medium of higher-education instruction. While such works may be seen to compete with the proposed monograph, a number of important differences are noted. In much the same way as all of the primary market publications, each are edited books; they, therefore, lack the cohesion and depth of investigation that a monograph provides. Furthermore, the publications within the tangential competition category are all based on significantly older data, far less applicable to, and representative of, contemporary issues in EMI programmes. These publications also relate primarily to macro-level discussions surrounding content and language integrated learning (CLIL) rather than the phenomenon of English-medium higher education which is substantively different and should be differentiated from CLIL.Primary2016: Dimova, S., Hultgren, A. K., Jensen, C., eds., English-Medium Instruction in European Higher Education.2013: Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D. & Sierra, J. M., eds., English-medium instruction at universities, Bristol: Multilingual Matters.2013: He, J. Die Auswirkungen der englischsprachigen Hochschullehre in Deutschland auf das Deutschlernen in China, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.2012: Fandrych, C. & Sedlaczek, B. 'I need German in my life': Eine empirische Studie zur Sprachsituation in englischsprachigen Studieng¿ngen in Deutschland, Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag.2008: Gnutzmann, C., ed., English in academia. Catalyst or barrier?, Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Tangential2011: Ruiz de Zarobe, Y., Sierra, J. M. & Gallardo del Puerto, F., eds., Content and foreign language integrated learning. Contributions to multilingualism in European contexts, Berlin: Peter Lang.2008: Maiworm, F., & Wächter, B. English-language-taught degree programmes in European higher education, Bonn: Lemmens.2008: Wilkinson, R. & Zegers, V., eds., Realizing content and language integration in higher education, Maastricht: Maastricht University.