Q: Julie, you’ve been involved with English Medium Instruction (EMI) for over a decade. How did your journey begin?

Julie: Well, I’d been working in the field of teaching long before this, but I suppose it really all started when I wrote the first global report on EMI: “English as a medium of instruction- a growing global phenomenon” published by the British Council. At the time, I was a Senior Research Fellow in EMI at the University of Oxford’s Department of Education, and was fortunate to work with a wonderful team of academics like Professor Ernesto Macaro and Dr Catherine Walter.

Q: Your 2015 report is still widely cited. Why do you think it had such an impact?

Julie: It was the first major global study of how EMI was being implemented in 55 countries and, maybe most notably, it provided the first academic definition of EMI:

“The use of the English language to teach academic subjects in countries or jurisdictions where the first language (L1) of the majority of the population is not English.”

Since then, there has been a wave of discussion, further research, and a lot of new initialisms and acronyms: EMI, EME, EMEMUS, English-Taught Programmes… the list goes on. But, what I feel is most important to remember among all the academic debate is that teachers face the everyday challenges of EMI and they need real support to plan and deliver courses that support their EMI students.

Q: What were some of the challenges you identified in that early research?

Julie: In that same report from 2015, I wrote:

“there is a shortage of linguistically qualified teachers; there are no stated expectations of English Language proficiency; there appear to be few organisational or pedagogical guidelines which might lead to effective EMI teaching and learning; there is little or no EMI content in initial teacher education (teacher preparation) programmes and continuing professional development (in-service) courses.”

These gaps made it clear to me that something needed to be done. Having been a trainer of teachers, a university lecturer and researcher myself, I wanted to address the lack of training for the practitioners of EMI, which led me to start Oxford EMI Ltd in 2017.

Q: And what is it that Oxford EMI does to support EMI teachers?

Julie: We’ve developed a range of specialised, short teacher training courses which lecturers can do face to face and online. Through these, we highlight and explore EMI pedagogy skills and practical teaching techniques which help EMI teachers of all subjects. In our face to face courses, course participants also deliver interdisciplinary micro-teaching sessions and get feedback from peers and expert trainers.

Q: You used the word ‘we’?

Yes, over the last ten years I have gathered a wonderful, expert team which includes EMI teacher trainers, EMI researchers, administrators, material designers and higher education specialists who specialise in EMI. This team provides support and training to lecturers and teachers from universities, colleges and schools around the world, with course participants coming from countries including Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, the USA, the UK, and many more.

Q: Have your courses evolved over time?

Julie: Definitely, in many ways. For example, we’ve recently integrated the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into our training. This allows higher education institutions to link EMI training with global priorities like sustainability and social impact. 

In addition, we also now integrate discussion and ideas on how AI can be used to plan teaching materials. In fact, our courses are always evolving to meet the needs of EMI teachers and students.

Q: How do participants benefit from the training?

Julie: I’m incredibly proud of our course participants. They’re juggling their full-time teaching jobs while committing to professional development – which is no small feat. Our certificates are recognised by universities, and we’ve seen how achieving an Oxford EMI Certificate boosts both teacher confidence and credibility in the EMI classroom.

Q: You have also been involved in consultancy work, is that right?

Julie: Yes, that’s right. In fact, we’ve been involved in some very large consultancy projects, including for the Ministry of Education in Taiwan. In that case, our team of experts collected data through surveys, focus groups, site visits and classroom observations from universities across the whole of Taiwan. The reports we wrote for the ministry provided a snapshot of progress in their implementation of EMI, and shared the best practices we found.

Q: Looking back over the last 10 years, how do you feel about the progress in EMI?

Julie: I’m amazed at how far we’ve come – from that first report to now training educators globally. There’s still more to do, but I’m feeling very optimistic about the future. With the right support, EMI can open up educational opportunities, foster internationalisation, and truly enhance learning experiences for students around the world.

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Julie Dearden is the founder and Director of Oxford EMI. You can find out more about her on the Meet our team page.