English Medium Instruction as a Local Practice: Language, Culture and Pedagogy

From the perspective of translanguaging and instruction theories, this Open Access book examines Chinese English Medium Instruction (EMI) lecturers’ linguistic and pedagogical characteristics. This book demonstrate that ‘English’ in EMI is not a monolingual issue and EMI lecturers have applied their bilingual advantages to systematically and strategically advance their pedagogy practices through a translanguaging process.  This book reflects upon EMI lecturers’ culture-imbedded teaching and learning philosophies and explores the implications of local classroom practices, such as topic-centered instruction and teacher presentation through demonstration. This book argues that EMI teaching is not an approach that can reach universal consent across linguistic, cultural and educational systems; it is an approach that is exclusively contextualised in the lecturers’ closely related cultural and educational system, and restricted by the available resources

Perspectives of transformative learning and professional agency : a native Chinese language teacher's story of teacher identity transformation in Australia

The notion of teacher identity has gained momentum in second language (L2) teacher education in the past decade. However, the research into Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) teacher identity has yet to receive more attention. The study employed a narrative inquiry to explore a native Chinese CFL in-service teacher’s identity negotiation and transformation within an international teacher education program. Self-reported narrative accounts, including multiple in-depth interviews and once-a-term reflective journals, were complemented by field notes and program documents. This data captured how the participant teacher negotiated internally with self and externally with the new environment to pursue professional growth. Mezirow’s transformative learning theory was used to reveal the cognitive trajectory of the participant’s teacher identity transformation with critical reflection as the central stage. Further, guided by Eteläpelto et al.’s framework of professional agency, the study also unraveled multiple external and internal influences on the transformational trajectory. The findings confirmed the value of integrating these two theoretical perspectives to explore language teacher identity development and offer insights into L2 teacher education practices focusing on teacher identity development

Building students’ entrepreneurial competencies in Chinese universities : diverse learning environment, knowledge transfer, and entrepreneurship education

Entrepreneurship education is a critical issue for higher education (HE) students, and thus has been on the agenda of national sustainable development in China. However, few studies have approached the enhancement of HE students’ entrepreneurial competencies in relation to the perspective of their learning environment. This study developed and employed the Theoretical Model of Entrepreneurial Competencies to examine the path of improving HE students’ entrepreneurial competencies. The results reveal that a diverse learning environment is an important external factor in developing HE students’ entrepreneurial competencies. Knowledge transfer, self-efficacy, and cognitive flexibility mediate this relationship. Moreover, entrepreneurship education significantly moderates the effects of self-efficacy on HE students’ entrepreneurial competencies, but it does not play a moderating role between cognitive flexibility and entrepreneurial competencies. This study provides insights for both policy and managerial endeavors in sustainably advancing HE students’ entrepreneurship through an innovative learning environment

Bilingual teachers' contextualization in teaching Chinese as a foreign language in Australian schools

This research focuses on the practice of contextualization in teaching Chinese as a foreign language among a cohort of bilingual language teacher-researchers. It aims to extend the prevalent emphasis in the current literature that acknowledges the role of context in language education; however, these research studies primarily give voice to linguistic contexts or relegates context into a static physical space such as ‘environment’. This research is grounded in a social constructionism perspective whereby context is regarded as a dynamic relation-building process, or more accurately, a contextualizing process, enabled through various sociocultural activities. The data reveal that the teacher-researchers employed various forms of contextualization in teaching and linked these to particular teaching content through identifiable, purposeful activities, resulting in a variety of students’ responses. This research provides an evidence-based understanding of contextualization in CFL teaching for a more sustainable second language education

An investigation of lecturers' teaching through English medium of instruction : a case of higher education in China

Teaching through English Medium of Instruction (EMI) is a theory-based pedagogy that has been adopted in many European and Asian countries as a strategic initiative in educational internationalization. To date, there has been little research into EMI in-class teaching and learning. In effect, lived experiences in EMI in-class practice have been largely ignored. To address this gap, we reported on a case study that explored the linguistic and pedagogical characteristics of EMI lecturers’ teaching in a university in southern China. Twenty academic staff in the university’s EMI programs were recruited. Their in-class EMI teaching processes were observed and audio-recorded. The data was analyzed by drawing upon multilingualism and instructional design theories. This research found that Chinese EMI lecturers’ bilingual repertoire led to their English instruction featuring Chinese language influences, from pronunciation to syntax and that translanguaging strategies were purposively employed to achieve their goals including students’ cognitive understanding, affiliative bonds and the lecturers’ own survival for teaching. Further, that and the instruction applied in the EMI classes were more topic-centered than problem-centered, focusing on activating new learning and knowledge presentation through demonstration

Pedagogy in teaching through English medium instruction : academics' cases in a Chinese university

As a result of two decades of development, the trajectory of English medium instruction (EMI) research has moved from the identification of problems towards a focus on pedagogy. In response to studies in the literature claiming that the dominant approach in EMI pedagogy is the direct transmission of knowledge, and calls for research investigating classroom discourse in EMI teaching, this study explores the pedagogical features enacted by bilingual EMI academics in a Chinese university’s EMI program. The participants were four academics who were teaching a subject in parallel across both EMI and CMI student cohorts. The research employs Paulo Freire’s framework of dialogic teaching as the theoretical lens and focused on investigating moments in which the EMI lecturers ‘dialogued’, engaged, and/or interacted with students in their EMI classes. This research found that, in spite of their varied disciplines, the lecturers mostly implemented expository teaching in their EMI and CMI classes in general. The efforts of individual academics in relation to intellectual equality, the wellbeing of students, and the encouragement of critical thinking through dialogue and interaction were identified. However, due to the academics positioning themselves as experts in subject knowledge, the tendency in their teaching was characterized as monologic rather than dialogic. This research contests a major theme in the literature, which is that the academics’ English (EMI teaching), in reference to their first language (L1), is not the major contributor to their pedagogical approach

[In Press] Translanguaging as a pedagogy : exploring the use of teachers’ and students’ bilingual repertoires in Chinese language education

This research offers a post-structuralist multilingual lens to examine translanguaging practice in Chinese as an Additional Language (CAL) teaching and learning. It investigates a cohort of bilingual Chinese teachers who had been trained in a teacher-researcher education programme in an Australian university. This research asks how the Chinese teachers utilised their own and their students’ bilingual repertoires to assist the learning of Chinese in Australian schools. The participant teachers’ theses were collected, and the evidentiary chapters reporting on their classroom teaching were analysed. Informed by the initial results, a follow-up stimulated recall interview was conducted. This research found that the teachers’ translanguaging practices were identified in the form of theirs and their students’ lingual and non-lingual capitals, and these practices showed a strong pedagogical purpose, particularly in motivating and engaging learners. The teachers’ translanguaging practices contributed to CAL pedagogy across three dimensions: teachers’ classroom instruction, teaching and learning resources, and learning activity design. These practices have demonstrated an impact on the students’ engagement, the enrichment of teaching content and improvement in dynamic teaching processes. This research is expected to provide insights into the future development of translanguaging curriculum and pedagogy in CAL education

Post-Lingual Chinese Language Learning: Hanzi Pedagogy

This book presents a thought-provoking challenge to mainstream theories of second language learning. Focusing on Chinese Hanzi, a self-sufficient meaning-making system that operates via visual shape and the logic built into its formation, it analyses ‘post-lingual’ pedagogy. The author examines this ‘language beyond language’ or linguistic theories, demonstrating that Hanzi is not made up simply of arbitrary signs but is the result of a complete conceptualisation process. In doing so, she creates a conceptual framework that builds on Hanzi’s humanistic spirit of language learning. This intriguing book will interest students and scholars of language education, and offers practical advice for those involved in teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language

How critical information literacy challenges Chinese international research students : a content analysis of their literature review documents

The standard of research papers and theses produced by international bi- or multilingual students troubles their native English speaking supervisors. Most concerns have been focused on students' genre issues such as wording, English grammar, sentence structure and connection of paragraphs. However, particularly in literature reviews, students need to know how to critically present the information of other researchers to serve their own needs. This aspect has been largely overlooked. This paper explores how a group of Chinese international Higher Degree Research students made use of information in their research writing. The nine participants were studying for a research Masters Degree in Education in an Australian university. This study involved a content analysis of the initial drafts of their literature review. Evidence reveals that the students were challenged in their critical information use. This includes evaluating information in their research context; synthesizing information to construct new concepts; transforming information to accomplish their specific purpose, and in presenting information to suit their reader

Information literacy challenges for Chinese PhD students in Australia : a biographical study

This study explored the information literacy (IL) development of international higher degree research (HDR) students from China as they undertook their research studies in an Australian university. International HDR students need advanced IL skills to complete their research degree. However, IL research and training in western countries has tended to regard international HDR students no differently from their undergraduate counterparts. That is, there has been a focus on basic information skills rather than considering the more complicated and advanced IL needs within a research context. The project presented in this paper aimed to explore this gap. Three international PhD students from China participated in this research. A biographical approach was used to collect the data, and a total of 222 reflective accounts were collected from the participants over a period of fifteen months. In these reflections, they recorded significant life and study experiences at the University of Western Sydney. This approach allowed the participants freedom to express their thoughts and feelings without interruption and enabled them to speak frankly and freely without prejudice. The approach to data analysis underpinning this study was based on Bruce's (1997) relational model of IL. The findings indicate that these international HDR students experience significant difficulties in developing their IL skills during their research studies in their western university. The complex nature of research study, which demands high levels of IL, significantly contributes to these difficulties, as do the different language and culture of international students which pose additional challenges to their information use. This article concludes with recommendations for research supervisors and librarians to consider in the provision of IL education for international students