Prof. Guangwei Hu
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Session
2:05 pm
English-Medium Instruction at Chinese Universities: A Close Look at Classroom Discourse
The past decades have seen escalating efforts to internationalize Chinese higher education. One popular strategy is to provide English-medium instruction (EMI). As a curricular strategy intended to increase institutional competitiveness and improve the quality of higher education, EMI has enjoyed strong policy support in many Chinese universities. However, such policy support is often not based on empirical research on EMI as implemented in the classroom and loses touch with the reality on the ground. In this presentation, I will share the findings of several studies I have conducted on EMI in Chinese universities to provide a research perspective on the many thorny issues and challenges of EMI and to take a close look at what transpires in EMI classrooms in relation to the envisioned goals of EMI. I will conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for endeavors to implement EMI in Chinese and other EFL contexts.Â
About the speaker
Guangwei Hu is a professor of language and literacy education in the Department of English and Communication and Associate Dean (Postgraduate Studies) in the Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include academic literacy, biliteracy acquisition, English for academic/specific purposes, language-in-education policy, and the psychology of second language learning and use. He has published over 160 journal articles and book chapters in these and other research areas. His most recent co-edited book is Cultural knowledge and values in English language teaching materials: (Multimodal) representations and stakeholders (2022, Springer). He serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including Accountability in Research, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, English for Specific Purposes, Iberica, Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes, and Language, Culture and Curriculum. Currently, he is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of English for Academic Purposes.