The number of English Medium Instruction (EMI) courses has been growing all over the world. Japan still lags in this growth compared to other countries, but it has still experienced a significant increase. Under these circumstances, the demand for Japanese professors to teach their subjects in English has increased simultaneously. Certain universities offer faculty development (FD) courses, yet the number of published studies on this topic is relatively small in comparison to other EMI topics. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine if FD is providing appropriate support for those Japanese professors teaching EMI. Participants include a former director of the international centre and five Japanese instructors with EMI teaching experience, selected for their insights into the effectiveness of current FD programmes. This single case study uses grounded methodology, which comprises three phases. The first phase involves document analysis and an interview with a former director of the international centre. Then, a pre-interview questionnaire is conducted with five EMI instructors in the second phase to formulate a hypothesis. In the third phase, three of the five EMI teachers participated in the interview, and the hypothesis was tested. The results support the hypothesis that FD programmes should offer more advanced English content and address the challenge of managing varying student proficiency levels within the same EMI class. The study concludes that FD programmes should conduct pre-course needs analyses and offer additional courses on managing proficiency disparities, along with linguistic support for students with limited English skills.
The role of faculty development programmes for Japanese instructors teaching university English Medium Instruction courses
Yamamoto, K. (Author). 25 Jun 2025
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Education (EdD)