How socio-affective and pedagogical strategies affect students’ willingness to communicate in English Medium Instruction: a mixed method study of a Sino-foreign cooperative university

Abstract

English medium instruction (EMI), referred to as 'bilingual education' (shuangyu jiaoyu/jiaoxue) or ‘Chinese-English bilingual education’ in China (Hu, 2009), was introduced in mainland China in 2000. Then, EMI programmes have grown rapidly in many Chinese higher education institutions over the past two decades (McKinley et al, 2023). Factors causing this rapid growth include the benefits in language and academic learning, the rank of the universities, and the growth of internationalisation (McKinley et al, 2023). In response to the growing popularity of EMI, China incorporated EMI into its higher education system. EMI is not only adopted by Sino-foreign cooperative universities but also welcomed by many Chinese public universities.

However, with the application of EMI, challenges also appeared. For example, previous Chinese EMI studies, such as Beckett and Li (2012), have found that English poses significant challenges for Chinese students in learning EMI and communicating in EMI classes as English is not their first language (L1). Under this circumstance, previous studies found that Chinese EMI students' willingness to communicate (WTC) is also not high (Ma et al., 2022).

Therefore, this study investigated Chinese EMI students’ perceptions of their WTC with their Chinese lecturers in a Sino-foreign cooperative university and factors influencing EMI students' WTC were also analysed. MacIntyre et al.'s model (1998) and Wen and Clement’s model (2003) serve as the theoretical frameworks in this study, providing a reference for exploration. Moreover, strategies applied by EMI lecturers, including socio-affective and pedagogical strategies, were analysed. Their relationships with students’ WTC were also investigated to explore effective strategies that can be used to stimulate Chinese EMI students’ WTC. As a reference, Mercer and Dörnyei's theoretical model of engagement (2020) was adopted as the third theoretical framework in this study.

This study was designed as a QUAN → qual mixed-methods research because the research questions in this study cannot be answered using only one method. Adopting the mixed-method can address the research questions more effectively from several perspectives (quantitative and qualitative). Besides, this approach also enhances the study’s validity because it combines both quantitative and qualitative research approaches, and incorporates a tenet called triangulation (Paltridge and Phakiti, 2015) or methodological triangulation (Denzin, 1978).

The whole study incorporated two phases. The first phase included a questionnaire survey (n=101). This survey investigated the relationship between Chinese EMI students’ WTC, socio-affective strategies (Teacher immediacy non-verbal behaviours, teacher immediacy verbal behaviours and teacher support) and pedagogical strategies (Motivating strategies, teacher cognitive congruence, error correction strategies and teachers’ wait time). The frequency analysis of students’ WTC was conducted to explore Chinese EMI students’ WTC levels. Then, two multiple regression models were designed to analyse the relationship between EMI students' WTC and socio-affective and pedagogical strategies. In the second phase, a follow-up semi-structured interview survey (n=16) was also conducted. Qualitative content analysis was then adopted to analyse the data.

The results of this study demonstrated that in contrast to the findings of previous EFL studies, EMI students in this study exhibited a high level of L2 WTC with their Chinese lecturers, especially when asking questions or responding to the lecturers' inquiries. Based on the interview results, communicative competence, academic competence, and a positive student-teacher relationship directly influenced students' WTC.

Besides, this study also investigated that those socio-affective and pedagogical strategies commonly employed in the EFL context, are also widely used to stimulate students' WTC in Chinese EMI classrooms. The socio-affective and pedagogical strategies analysed in this study are qualitatively shown to be positively related to EMI students' WTC, similarly to previous EFL studies. However, only teacher immediacy (non-verbal behaviours) as one of the socio-affective strategies and teachers' wait time as one of the pedagogical strategies have been both quantitatively and qualitatively demonstrated to be positively associated with EMI students' WTC. An important potential reason causing these non-verbal strategies to be positively related to Chinese EMI students’ WTC is Chinese traditional culture, such as Confucianism.

Ultimately, this study also provided some theoretical and methodological implications and implications for educational practice, which may benefit future EMI studies and EMI teaching practice. For example, this study demonstrates that only two non-verbal strategies, teacher immediacy (non-verbal behaviours) and teachers' wait time, have been both quantitatively and qualitatively demonstrated to be positively associated with Chinese EMI students' WTC. Therefore, those lecturers who want to engage Chinese EMI students’ WTC can employ eye contact, smiles, or nods to encourage silent students to communicate. Additionally, precautions that lecturers need to consider when using these strategies in the EMI classroom have also been summarized.

Date of Award	26 Jun 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Samantha Curle (Supervisor) & Reka Ratkaine Jablonkai (Supervisor)