Annotated biography: rough draft

Introduction:
English as a Medium of Instruction has been spreading around the world these past years. Nowadays, we can
find a different studies about it and how it has been approached and criticized around the world. However,
despite how beneficial, prestigious, or interesting EMI may sound, to what extent are we certain that it is an
efficient tool for acquiring knowledge all over the world? We are certain that, for native speakers, English is
the usual medium of instruction, but for immigrants, non-native speakers, students with a lower proficiency in
English, and even teachers, is it really a method that enhances their abilities as well as their class content? Or
is it just a method that confuses and hinders students' learning? To find the answer to these questions, it is
important to evaluate different investigations, papers, and articles about the topic. Every author in this
annotated bibliography approaches EMI in diverse ways. Each one portrays from students to teachers and
even professionals’ point of view in which, altogether conclude that EMI will mainly be beneficial for those
who are either native speakers or have a high English proficiency. Otherwise, students may find it hard and
will encounter mostly difficulties.

Paper 1

Dearden, J., & Macaro, E. (2016). Higher education teachers’ attitudes towards English medium instruction:
A three-country comparison. SSLLT 6 (3), Pp. 455-486. doi: 10.14746/ssllt.2016.6.3.5

Dearden and Macaro claim in their report that EMI is organically increasing and will increase through the
years. So, we must make the best of it. They did semi structured interviews only to Higher Education teachers
involved in EMI programs, therefore, they could give detailed feedback and honest opinion about the
development of EMI and EMI students mainly in Austria Italy and Poland. With these perspectives, mainly
there was a positive opinion about the introduction of EMI HE. However, there is a considerable concern
about speed, lack of agency, low linguistic proficiency, and general support for participants in the program.
They finally emphasize on the importance of gaining insights into how educational and political setting
influences teacher’s beliefs. The main purpose is to Explain and show the attitudes teachers have towards
EMI. With this purpose in mind, the author explores different aspects such as policies, preparations, and
students' level of English, from the teacher's point of view. The intended audience are researchers or experts
in EMI, because this report suggests further research that could provide insights about the introduction of EMI
across the world. With this in mind, they can have a better understanding about the impact EMI has on its
participants, which is not always found in papers or research. Comment...

Paper 2

Galloway, N. (September 14th, 2017). How Effective is English as a Medium of Instruction?. Retrieved from
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-effective-english-medium-instruction-emi

Dr. Nicola Galloway points out in her interview report that EMI programs have been spreading in different
countries due to three main reasons: government interests, students’ convenience for academic research, and
the university’s pursuit of raising its position in rankings. In her research, she mainly focused on Asian
countries such as China and Japan, where EMI is rapidly growing. Despite this growth, she assures that EMI
programs do not seem to be improving students' learning capacity. Galloway states that students feel that they
are boosting their English, however, they are not having enough English support and teachers are worried. In
the end, she addresses her concern about multilingualism as a sign of a lack of proficiency in English for
students. Along with the interview report, her purpose was to explain the research she did about EMI in
different Asian universities, analyze the results of her study, in order to determine whether EMI programs are
effective or not. With this information in hand, the intended audience: university students and teachers who
may or intend to enroll in EMI programs, can find out what an EMI program is and conclude for themselves
whether it is successful by using the results of the research. Also, involving them in her own research.
Comment...

Paper 3

Shohamy, E. (2012). A Critical Perspective on the Use of English as a Medium of Instruction at

Universities.

In the article “A Critical Perspective on the Use of English as a Medium of Instruction at Universities” by
Elana Shohamy (2012). She analyzes four different settings of the medium of instruction leading to different
critical arguments about the use of EMI in Higher Education Institutions. Moreover, she addresses three main
issues these students must face, especially minority groups, that sum up by the fact that using their third
language (the weakest of all) challenges even more the acquisition of content, method of assessment, and lack
of special help, resulting in a way of inequality in the educational field. Finally, she states that EMI leads to
discrimination towards students who do not have a high English proficiency, leading to a worst development
in education. In this way, her purpose is to explain and argue about the subtractive and additive different
settings of educational policies. So, the audience can understand and evaluate the effects the application of
EMI has specially on immigrant, indigenous and minority students. The audience are experts on the field
(university professors, faculty members, CEO of universities that use EMI), because the information she
offers and criticizes, is given in a way that people who have the power to do it can make some adjustments in
the educational field that will benefit every single student. Therefore, international students will avoid going
through the unfair challenges they are facing nowadays that harm their learning. Comment...

Paper 4

Soruc, A., & Griffiths, C. (2017). English as a medium of instruction: students’ strategies. ELT Journal Vol.
(72)1. doi: 10.1093/elt/ccx017

The authors Adem Soruç and Carol Griffiths, did a research article focused on students from different national
backgrounds that are now taking an EMI program at university. This article is supported through diverse data
collection strategies such as video recording, an open-ended questionnaire, and stimulated-recall interviews to
analyze the challenging aspects these students are facing as non-native speakers. As a result, the author's main
finding is that students are aware of their difficulties while taking the program, and each of them have their
own strategies to deal with them. However, there has still not been suggested a way of dealing with problems
on the affective and speaking domain, which some students may find harder. The main purpose of this text
was to help EMI students around the world by sharing students' strategies on how to deal with EMI classes.
Because of this research article, the audience will be informed about the main problems students have, and
what strategies students apply to overcome these difficulties. The intended audience for this text is students
considering getting into an EMI program or even EMI students who are facing similar challenges. Therefore,
they can take some notes on the strategies given and understand that many non-native students are still going
through some challenges. Comment…

Paper 5

Kramsch, C. (1997). The Privilege of the Nonnative Speaker. PMLA , May, 1997, Vol. 112, No. 3, pp. 359-
369. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.com/stable/462945

Claire Kramsch wrote an opinion column where she recognizes language. She starts by defining language in
two ways. First, as a standardized system. Second, as a social and cultural practice. Moreover, she briefly
talks about motivations for learning a foreign language, code-switching, and self-expression. One of her main
findings is that there are big expectations from foreign language learners: to acquire the same skills native
speakers have, especially communicating. Which I believe is true, because of the pressure I feel as a
nonnative speaker when communicating with English speakers. However, throughout the text, she starts
discussing that native speakership was viewed as a privilege of birth, grammar intuitions, and social
acceptance, leading to the fact that a native speaker is “an imaginary construct”. The main purpose of the
author in this opinion column is to postulate her thoughts about language. And to clarify, what she thinks
makes someone a native speaker. And, to identify what really is the privilege of a nonnative speaker. The
intended audience are non-native speakers, multilingual students, or whoever is interested in language. This,
because she wants to persuade them with her claims and change their perspective about language for the
better.

Nicole: Tus anotaciones están bien argumentadas.Tienes apropiados citados de referencia. Usas conectores,
los cuales ayudan a que estén más unidas las fuentes y el subtema. No estoy segura si pusiste a tu público, en
todo caso eso podría faltar. Muy bien, en general!!

Delia:

- La organización del texto está clara, se entiende que es un annotated bibliography

- La información está apropiadamente resumida
- Opcionalmente, creo que podrías extender un poco la introducción definiendo EMI
.Josue:
- Puedes agregar información acerca de los autores que vas a usar en tu introducción
- Me parece bien concisa y acertada la información que has usado en tus annotations