In this post, we talk with Dr. Ben Beaumont, an expert in teacher education and pedagogy, about his doctoral thesis ‘Exploring the Effects of English as a Medium of Instruction in Higher Education: The Impact on Lecturers’ Habitus’

Interviewer: So, Dr. Beaumont, what did you want to explore in this research project?

Dr. Beaumont: I wanted to dig into the real, day-to-day challenges faced by lecturers who have to switch from teaching in their L1 (first languages) to teaching through English Medium Instruction (EMI). There’s a lot of talk about the need for good language skills, but I felt like the human side of it, how it affects teachers personally and professionally, wasn’t being discussed enough. I was particularly interested in how this change impacts lecturers’ sense of who they are as professionals.

Interviewer: In your thesis, you use the framework of Bourdieusian habitus. Can you tell us a bit about what that means?

Dr. Beaumont: Certainly! Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’ is basically a way of looking at how our surroundings, and people and things in those surroundings, influence us, shaping who we are. We might think of habitus as the set of deeply ingrained, often unconscious habits, skills, and dispositions we acquire from our social environment; influences that shape our perceptions and actions.

So, in a study in the context of an EMI teacher, we can consider more abstract areas like professional support, vocational expectations, and language levels of lecturers and learners, as well as more tangible elements such as a lecturer’s working conditions, like class sizes and teaching spaces.

Interviewer: What was the biggest eye-opener for you in terms of the challenges these lecturers face?

Dr. Beaumont: The main issues were definitely linked to language, but not always in the way you’d expect. Many of them told me they struggled to explain complex ideas and clarify ideas for their students. This made them feel less effective than when they taught in their first language(s), and it often left them feeling less confident as a professional. Another major consideration was that, in the first two years of EMI work, it took a lot more time to prepare a class in English, which was a major source of stress.

Interviewer: Did you find that their universities were there to help them out?

Dr. Beaumont: Sometimes, but not as much as they really needed. A lot of the lecturers felt fairly disconnected from their institutions, especially when it came to their teaching work. They felt like universities often cared more about their research papers and getting published than about ensuring there was good teaching. Many lecturers improve their English and teaching skills in their own time, as there often isn’t the support within universities to facilitate the change from one language of instruction to another. Happily, those who did get special training found it incredibly helpful for boosting their confidence and their teaching skills.

Interviewer: So, what’s your advice for universities trying to make this transition smoother for their teaching staff?

Dr. Beaumont: Universities need to offer structured support to lecturers working through EMI. The initial period of switching to English and teaching to a potentially international student body can be really tough, and it can cause a lot of teacher anxiety, and so helping enable a positive transition will really help increase learning and boost achievement.

Providing specific training on teaching through EMI, including how to adapt teacher language to the context, is a must. It’s also important for institutions to be realistic about expectations and to acknowledge that teaching a subject through a new language is a lot of extra work for teachers. 

In essence, a little bit of professional support and training can go a long way to help the teachers plan, develop and deliver more successful EMI courses to students.

Oxford EMI training courses [call to action]

Research such as that conducted by Dr. Beaumont informs the content of our training courses for EMI and TNE lecturers. This includes our online and face-to-face EMI teacher training courses as well as the English language skills for EMI lecturers course.

Blog subject

Dr Ben Beaumont is a senior trainer, consultant and researcher for Oxford EMI. You can find out more about him on the Meet our team page.

A selection of Dr. Beaumont’s publications:

Beaumont, B. (2019). Identifying in-service support for lecturers working in English medium instruction contexts. In Internationalising learning in higher education: The challenges of English as a medium of instruction (pp. 83-110). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Beaumont, B. (2022). Exploring the Effects of English as a Medium of Instruction in Higher Education: The Impact on Lecturers’ Habitus (Doctoral dissertation, UCL (University College London)).

Dearden, J., & Beaumont, B. (2024). Lecturers’ professional development for English-medium instruction in higher education. In The Routledge handbook of English-medium instruction in higher education (pp. 49-62). Routledge.