Integrating language and knowledge building through video-enhanced observation in EMI

Diğer Uluslararası Fon Programları, 2020 - 2023

This project responds to the research priorities of the European Union's next research and innovation

investment programme (2021-2027), by bringing the benefits of digital transformation to education

and training, through making optimal use of emerging technologies, such as video-based apps, to

support innovative learning environments and provide teachers and educators with adequate skills

and knowledge. The context of the project is the rapidly growing use of English-medium instruction

(EMI) in Higher Education (HE) institutions, as part of a drive for internationalization. The project

addresses four key problems which have been identified in the EMI literature: (1) concerns raised by

stakeholders about its implementation, (2) a lack of research into what goes on in EMI classrooms at

the level of practice (Macaro et al. 2018), (3) a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to EMI in which disciplinary

practices and literacies are not taken into account (Airey et al. 2017), and (4) a lack of focus on

methodological issues in EMI teacher training (O'Dowd 2018).

The project uses the ROAD MAPPING framework (Dafouz and Smit 2020) to identify the dimensions

of EMI focused on in the study and elucidate dynamic relations between them. It addresses problem

(1) at (language) Management level by using Q methodology, a powerful statistical technique for

identifying viewpoints held on topics by key stakeholders, in order to elucidate the range of

viewpoints on EMI extant in individual institutions, and to assess the extent of their alignment with

institutional policies and priorities. Problems (2) and (3) (at the levels of Roles of English, Agents and

Practices and Processes) are addressed by combining tools from sociology of education

(Legitimation Code Theory - LCT), linguistics (Systemic Functional Linguistics - SFL) and the

methods of corpus linguistics and multi-modal micro-analysis to analyze participants'

knowledge-building and meaning-making practices in EMI classrooms. A key argument is that EMI

suffers from a lack of integration of language and disciplinary knowledge building practices, and

these need to be brought together in order for implementation to be effective and maintain quality.

To address problem (4), the corpus analyses will be used to develop a video-based tool for the

professional development of EMI lecturers through video-observation, reflection and dialogue, using

the Video Enhanced Observation (VEO) app. The final product of the project will be a conceptual

framework and set of video-based training materials which will bring the