The purpose of this study was to determine perceptions of students, teachers and parents concerning English-medium instruction and their perceptions of English as a foreign language. The research design of the study comprised a nation-wide questionnaire survey and individual interviews. The sample for the survey consisted of 982 students, 383 teachers and 988 parents in 42 Anatolian high schools across 32 provinces in Turkey selected using statified and criterion sampling. The participants of the interviews were six students, four teachers and four parents. Two distinct instruments were used for data collection / a survey questionnaire containing five-point Likert scales and open-ended questions / and a semi-structured interview schedule. To analyze quantitative data, descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and bivariate correlations were conducted. The qualitative data of the interviews and open-ended questions were analyzed via content analysis. Results indicated that students, teachers and parents do not favor English-medium instruction at secondary education. Regardless of their position on English-medium instruction, participants underscored problems of implementation of English-medium instruction at Anatolian high schools. A positive correleation was found between perceptions of English and perceptions of English-medium instruction for each group. Results also showed that all groups perceive English positively as a foreign language, and support the teaching and learning of English. According to students&amp / #8217 / and teachers&amp / #8217 / perceptions, English-medium instruction influences the instructional process in math and science in Anatolian high schools, and poses problems particularly in the learning of the subject matter.

Good academic literacy skills are vital for success in the 21st century for students in higher education and for professional people in the workforce to be able to process and convey information and knowledge. The purpose of the current study was to gain insights into the construct of academic literacy skills and to identify indicators affecting the development of the academic literacy skills of first year students in higher education. To this end, a case study was done on a cohort of 20 first year male Emirati students attending an academic literacy skills course in an engineering higher education institute in the Arabian Gulf region. The study was guided by three research questions concerning the development of academic literacy skills which were defined as writing strategies, library research strategies and general study skills (Bury, Sheese & Katz, 2013). Data gathered comprised surveys, grade comparisons, written assignments, semi-structured interviews, classroom observations recorded using a video camera and instructor observations. The framework of Academic Literacies developed by Lea and Street (1998, 2000, 2006) was used for analysis with a focus on the supplementing constructs of study skills and academic socialization. To extract more detailed knowledge and further insights about the students’ academic literacy skills, a comparison was also made between the developmental indicators regarding successful and non-successful students’ written work and their approaches to completing assignments. The indicators revealed included the students’ lack of library research strategies, digital literacy skills and sense of ownership. Theoretical and practical implications for developing students’ academic literacy skills are provided in conclusion.

The discourse on English-medium teaching in higher education uses several terms and concepts to describe practices, very often synonymously. This contribution aims to fill the research gap of a conceptualisation of English-medium teaching in higher education. It will identify relevant approaches and their corresponding terminology, as well as clarify which approaches are most suitable for higher education. Given that the past decades have seen a substantial rise in the use of English as a teaching language in European compulsory schooling [Dalton-Puffer, C. 2011. "Content and Language Integrated Learning: From Practice to Principles?" Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 31: 182-183], the paper will also draw parallels between the secondary and the tertiary levels of education. At the same time, it will also be shown why insights drawn from research conducted in secondary education cannot simply be transferred to the tertiary level of education. The main focus of the paper is on the "English-medium Paradigm", a framework created to identify prevalent instructional types in Englishtaught programmes at universities in non-Anglophone countries [Unterberger, B. 2014. "English-medium Degree Programmes in Austrian Tertiary Business Studies: Policies and Programme Design." Dissertation, University of Vienna, 45-52]. The paradigm is based on terminological and conceptual considerations gained from the critical discussion of English for specific purposes, English for academic purposes, Content and language integrated learning and English-medium instruction literature [e.g. Bhatia, V. K. 1993. Analysing Genre: Language use in Professional Settings. London: Longman; Hyland, K. 2006. English for Academic Purposes: An Advanced Resource Book. London: Routledge; Dalton-Puffer, C. 2007. "Academic Language Functions in a CLIL Environment". In Diverse Contexts - Converging Goals: CLIL in Europe, edited by D. Marsh, 201-209. Mehrsprachigkeit in Schule und Unterricht 6. Frankfurt am Main: Lang; Dafouz, E., and U. Smit. 2014. "Towards a Dynamic Conceptual Framework for English-medium Education in Multilingual University Settings". Applied Linguistics. doi:10.1093/applin/amu034]. The paper therefore provides a timely conceptualisation of the varieties of English-medium teaching in higher education which also takes into account pedagogical considerations as well as implications for curriculum design.

This paper investigates the roles of disagreement and trust in multicultural teamwork on an English-medium master's programme at an Austrian business university. The teamwork project - assigned by the content teacher - took place mostly outside the classroom and simulated business practice both in terms of the tasks and the multicultural context. Each team comprised two Austrian students and two international students, resulting in an English as a lingua franca (ELF) setting. The teams were observed and audio-/video-recorded, with the analysis focusing on an early stage of the project where they laid the groundwork for the team mental models in terms of establishing the team goals, relationships and communicative practices. Additionally, retrospective interviews were conducted at the end of the project with each of the team members and the lecturer to gain emic insights into the project. The findings suggest a symbiotic relationship between disagreement and trust, in which high levels of trust and the construction of a psychologically safe space allow the team members to disagree with and challenge each other without damaging their relationships, leading to better decisions. In turn, these decisions can contribute to a sense of shared success that strengthens the team's joint identity.

This thesis presents English-medium instruction (EMI) in the Swedish context, focusing on perspectives and practices in two schools. The research question is as follows: How and why is EMI offered, chosen, and practiced in the Swedish upper secondary school today? The aim is to explore the status of the educational option, the reasons for offering EMI to stakeholders, the stakeholders’ beliefs about and goals of EMI, and the implementation of EMI in the classroom. A survey of all upper secondary schools in Sweden was conducted to ascertain the spread of content teaching through a foreign language. The educational context was studied from an ecological perspective using methods based in linguistic ethnography. Language alternation, academic language, and language hierarchy were all considered. Interviews were analysed for content; and classroom language use was analysed for language choice and function. The concepts of affordance and scaffolding together with translanguaging were key. The de facto policies of the micro contexts of the schools were examined in light of the declared national policy of the macro context of Sweden. The results indicate that the option in Swedish schools has not increased, and also tends to only be EMI—not Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) or instruction through other languages. EMI is offered for prestige, an international profile, marketing potential and personal interest. EMI students are academically motivated and confident, and see the option as “fun”. 100% EMI in the lessons is not the goal or the practice. Translanguaging is abundant, but how language alternation is perceived as an affordance or not differs in the two schools. One focuses on how the languages are used while the other focuses on how much each language is used. In conclusion, the analysis suggests that a development of definitions and practices of EMI in Sweden is needed, especially in relation to language policy and language hierarchy.

This thesis presents English-medium instruction (EMI) in the Swedish context, focusing on perspectives and practices in two schools. The research question is as follows: How and why is EMI offered, chosen, and practiced in the Swedish upper secondary school today? The aim is to explore the status of the educational option, the reasons for offering EMI to stakeholders, the stakeholders’ beliefs about and goals of EMI, and the implementation of EMI in the classroom. A survey of all upper secondary schools in Sweden was conducted to ascertain the spread of content teaching through a foreign language. The educational context was studied from an ecological perspective using methods based in linguistic ethnography. Language alternation, academic language, and language hierarchy were all considered. Interviews were analysed for content; and classroom language use was analysed for language choice and function. The concepts of affordance and scaffolding together with translanguaging were key. The de facto policies of the micro contexts of the schools were examined in light of the declared national policy of the macro context of Sweden. The results indicate that the option in Swedish schools has not increased, and also tends to only be EMI—not Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) or instruction through other languages. EMI is offered for prestige, an international profile, marketing potential and personal interest. EMI students are academically motivated and confident, and see the option as “fun”. 100% EMI in the lessons is not the goal or the practice. Translanguaging is abundant, but how language alternation is perceived as an affordance or not differs in the two schools. One focuses on how the languages are used while the other focuses on how much each language is used. In conclusion, the analysis suggests that a development of definitions and practices of EMI in Sweden is needed, especially in relation to language policy and language hierarchy.

The last two decades have set the global trend of internationalized education on a new course. Besides the usual flow of international students from their home countries to Western universities, an opposite flow emerged. In the Middle East, for instance, the number of international campuses nearly doubled between 2000 and 2009, and Egypt has been no exception. Starting 2003, Egypt has witnessed a remarkable surge of private international universities that use English as a medium of instruction, adopt foreign curricula and have partnerships with universities in Europe, North America, and recently Asia. This trend has raised identity loss concerns among many intellectuals and educational researchers whose worries mainly revolved around national, religious, and linguistic identities. This longitudinal qualitative study, thus, aimed to understand how Egyptian freshman students at an international University in Cairo construct and negotiate their national, religious and linguistic identities. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 12 students at three different points of their first year at the university, and a focus group was organized at the beginning of their second year. Results revealed a more complex picture than the widespread simplistic rhetoric about international universities’ influence on students’ identity construction. The participants’ social and academic backgrounds and unique life experiences were an important factor in their identity construction and negotiation; they seemed to determine the ranking of those identities on their hierarchy of identities, which in turn shaped how they constructed and negotiated them. Moreover, participants realized and used their agency to negotiate their identities and resolve identity crises when these happened. They also resorted to other identity agents, particularly family and students’ clubs. This study contributes to the Egyptian debate on educational reform and adds to the literature on English as a medium of instruction, identity formation, and internationalized education by shedding light on the intricate ways in which students navigate through international education, and by suggesting pedagogical and policy implications applicable not only to liberal-education institutions in the region, but perhaps also to other universities in Europe and North America that attract international students, particularly with the recent waves of refugees from the Middle East.

The aim of this empirical study is to investigate the role of the L1 (Swedish for the purpose of this study) at upper secondary schools in Sweden, in English class. It also examines teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of the L1 in the ESL classroom. The method that has been used for this thesis is a qualitative research method. In order to collect data, structured open-ended interviews were conducted. A total of eleven upper secondary students from the same school, and six upper secondary ESL teachers from four different schools, participated in this study. The results show that almost all of the participating students and teachers think that the L1 should be allowed in the classroom, as it can be used as a resource for learning. For instance, as the results demonstrate, the L1 was mainly used as a tool to clarify instructions, explain difficult terms, explain vocabulary and grammar rules, when translating, to manage discipline, and when they are socializing with each other. The majority of the participants suggest that the L1 worked as a very helpful tool in the learning process, especially in situations where students lacked understanding. However, there were also critical responses towards the use of the L1, particularly since the L1 can be easily overused. Previous research shares these latter views regarding the use of the L1 in the classroom, and confirms that it is important that learners are exposed to as much English as possible for successful language learning and development.

Questa tesi riflette l’attuale interesse per il dibattito educativo sul ruolo e sull’uso dell’inglese come lingua veicolare in ambiente accademico. I programmi che utilizzano l’inglese come Medium of Instruction (EMI) sono al centro dell’attenzione di questo studio, che si compone di una parte quantitativa e una parte qualitativa. Attraverso un’analisi aggiornata dei dati raccolti da Costa e Coleman nel 2012, la prima parte descrive i risultati di un questionario spedito a tutte le università italiane; la parte qualitativa descrive l’utilizzo dei marcatori metadiscorsivi impiegati da quattro docenti dell’Università Cattolica di Milano. A tale scopo, è stata adottata una versione semplificata del modello di Ädel (2003), proposto da Nobles (2010), e applicato in questa sede al discorso accademico orale. L’aumento del numero di corsi di EMI in Italia registrato da Costa e Coleman nel 2012 è rimasto stabile. Il confronto tra l’uso di marcatori metadiscorsivi personali e impersonali mostra un maggior utilizzo dei primi, in particolare del pronome personale “we”. Infine, lo studio vuole fornire dati e riflessioni a docenti, istituzioni universitarie e legislatori, utili anche alla progettazione di corsi di formazione per insegnanti. / This thesis reflects the shared current interest in the ongoing educational debate on the role and use of English as a medium of instruction in academic settings. English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) programs are the main focus of this study which includes a quantitative and a qualitative part. Through an up-to-date analysis of the data on EMI courses in Italy collected by Costa and Coleman in 2012, the first part shows the results of a questionnaire that was sent to all Italian universities; the qualitative part describes the use of metadiscourse markers by four Italian lecturers at the Università Cattolica of Milan. The simplified and restricted classification model of metadiscourse markers proposed by Nobles (2010), adapted from Ädel (2003), was here applied to the academic spoken discourse. The increase in the number of EMI courses in Italy registered by Costa and Coleman in 2012 has remained stable. The comparison of the use of personal and impersonal metadiscourse shows that personal metadiscourse tokens surpass the impersonal counterpart, with the pronoun “we” as the most frequent self-mention marker in the corpus. Finally, the present study can be of great interest both for lecturers and university policymakers or teacher-training designers.

This paper aims to explore Swedish students’ experiences of English-medium instruction (EMI) in Swedish higher education. Previous research shows that students’ experiences of EMI in higher education are closely related to attitudes towards the proficiencies of lecturers and peers, which in turn are based on students’ conceptualisations of English. Through the use of semi-structured interviews, three interrelated themes are explored: (1) how prepared students felt they were to use English in higher education (2) students’ experiences of acquiring content through English and (3) students’ underlying conceptualisations of English. Three Swedish students at different institutions and programs were interviewed. Findings show that the students had varied views of what it was to be prepared for EMI as well as how prepared they felt they were according to their own definitions. Students also had differing experiences of acquiring content through English. All three students conceptualised English as a standard, native variety. Their conceptualisations of English as a standard had implications on student-student and teacher-student interactions, which was evidenced especially in regard to international non-native speakers of English. Findings are discussed in relation to relevant previous research on EMI and the Swedish context. Finally, suggestions are made for Upper Secondary school in-class practices, for the benefit of better preparing Swedish students for higher education in Sweden by implementing an English as a lingua franca (ELF-) perspective on English spoken interaction.