Members of the Oxford EMI team were delighted to attend and present at the 6th EMI Symposium this year. Here’s some of what they got out of the two-day event.

The  6th EMI Symposium, partnered with the 3rd annual ELINET conference, took place on the 3rd and 4th of July this year at the Department for Education, University of Oxford. It was the largest to date, and plenary sessions were also livestreamed with online participants joining in the Q&A sessions. 

EMI Plenary sessions

Dr Rafael Timmermann’s plenary on day one was an insightful overview of the complexities of EMI implementation as part of an internationalisation strategy. He focused on the context of Brazil, where he is based at UFPA. Many of the issues he mentioned echoed what we see in countries the Oxford EMI team work in, such as Taiwan and Japan. He was very clear that teaching through English requires a change in pedagogy and mentioned that teachers in Brazil are more willing to retrain where there is a perceived reward and ongoing support.

Dr Ikuya Aizawa of the University of Nottingham, UK started day two by delivering an engaging and informative plenary in which he outlined some of the work he has been doing comparing EMI and Japanese Medium Instruction with regard to content learning outcomes. He highlighted some of the unique challenges faced by EMI students, many of whom navigated their courses successfully through language support, content teacher support and collaborative peer networks. It is ongoing research like Dr Aiawa’s that continues to inform the content of our practical online and face-to-face teacher training courses.

This was followed by the final plenary sessions of the conference delivered by Professor Ali Fuad Selvi of the University of Alabama, USA, who unpacked the internationalisation and EMI landscape in Northern Cyprus. A fascinating talk about a context few in the audience had an in-depth awareness of, and one which highlighted the need for stricter regulation to ensure educational and pastoral quality for international students. 

Oxford EMI sessions

On the afternoon of the second day, Oxford EMI team members Tom Spain and Simon Dunton presented some of the findings from our large-scale project on EMI in Taiwan, which we conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Education as part of our EMI and internationalisation consultancy work.

They were very pleased to attract a good-sized audience for the session in which they shared a snapshot of the project, with a focus on the findings from our site visits. These took place over four weeks in 2023 and involved us visiting 16 major universities across the whole island and observing 80 EMI classes in a range of disciplines. This generated some good questions at the end of the session.

Global voices

When it came to the breakout sessions, what was really noticeable was the involvement and mention of EMI practices and research from around the world. Sessions the Oxford EMI team attended included the following:

• Alina Resceanu outlined and explored the EMI landscape in Romania, as well as her findings on a study reporting motivational dynamics from computer science students at the University of Craiova. This reminds us that students should be at the centre of EMI policy making, as well as course planning and delivery. 
• Dr. Marlar Lwin Soe from SUSS, Singapore, observed that the time has come to focus more on the “I” of EMI, rather than the “E” when considering the professional development needs of EMI content lecturers. In other words, echoing Prof. Timmermann’s comment about the importance of the pedagogical approach.
• Professor Daniel Fung of HKU Faculty of Education suggested that more explicit focus on listening strategies with EMI students can improve their comprehension of teacher input, according to his study in Hong Kong. This links the role of EAP classes in successful EMI implementation.
• Timothy Hampson, from the IOE at UCL, presented early findings from his bibliometric analysis, which has uncovered geographical imbalances in higher education research across the globe, calling for the audience to look at research from the global south.

And there were many more sessions focussing on countries including Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Oman, India, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, China, Spain, Ukraine, Indonesia, Tunisia, Germany, Israel, Italy, North Macedonia, Canada, Turkey, and Malaysia. 

Oxford EMI Emerging Researcher Award

As part of the closing ceremony, Oxford EMI Director Julie Dearden was pleased to present the inaugural Oxford EMI Emerging Researcher Award to Osanka Rathnasiri for her pre-doctoral work on language ideologies in EMI at a Sri Lankan university.

It was standing-room only for this final event of the conference, and Osanka received a well-deserved round of applause from the assembled researchers.  We wish her all the best as she continues her PhD journey at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Continuing conversations

The conference was also a great opportunity to catch up with colleagues and make new connections with peers from around the globe between sessions. We were lucky enough to enjoy two days of glorious British sunshine, so made good use of the garden space at the Department of Education for this purpose.

We look forward to learning and sharing new findings at the 7th EMI Symposium, to be held in 2027.