English medium of instruction in Chinese higher education: A systematic mapping review of empirical research

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (SciVal)
52 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In 2001, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China issued guidelines to promote the quality of higher education and to advocate the expansion of the use of English (Ministry of Education (MoE). 2001. Guanyu jiaqiang gaodeng xuexiao benke jiaoxue gongzuo tigao jiaoxue zhiliang de ruogan yijian [Guidelines for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Teaching at Higher Education Institutions]. Available at: http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfifiles/business/htmlfifiles/moe/moe_309/200412/4682.html). This paper reviews empirical studies in English and Chinese on EMI in Chinese higher education published from 2001 to 2019, during the last two decades since these guidelines were released. The review contributes to the field of EMI by documenting, analysing and synthesising empirical evidence and by situating EMI studies in China in the global trends of EMI research. The review aims to give an overview of studies targeted at both global and local audiences, therefore, publications in both English and Chinese were included. To select the Chinese articles the core journals indexed by CNKI were searched, and for the English articles, we used ERIC, IBSS, SCOPUS and WOS databases. After excluding theoretically oriented studies, literature reviews and commentaries, 42 articles remained. The in-depth analysis revealed that the main topics of these studies included the student perception, implementation and educational practices, and the role of language. We conclude that in general there are insufficient empirical studies, especially about EMI teachers' perspectives to inform policies and practices at the micro, meso and macro level. Based on the findings, directions for further research are identified and recommendations for methodological approaches for future studies are also made.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1483-1512
Number of pages30
JournalApplied Linguistics Review
Volume14
Issue number6
Early online date30 Nov 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Dec 2021

Funding

This work was supported by Shandong provincial governmental scholarship for the oversea academic visitors [Award ID: Lujiaowaihan[2019]No.272, Department of Education of Shandong Province.3., DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100012906] and by the project entitled “Research on the art teachers’ agency with the national standard for the educational quality of foreign language major in high institutions in China” funded by the Core programs of art and science of Shandong province in China [Grant number YJ201911190, funding organization: Shandong Provincial Association for Science of Arts & Culture]. The funding source had no involvement in study design, in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report or in the decision to submit the article for publication.

Keywords

  • China
  • EMI
  • Higher education
  • Systematic review

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'English medium of instruction in Chinese higher education: A systematic mapping review of empirical research'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this