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English As A Medium Instruction Essay

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English as a Medium Instruction (EMI)

English as a medium of instruction has developed as a global trend for a range of reasons. Nowadays EMI is truly a global phenomenon. In this literature review, I look at the historical backgrounds of EMI in three periods prior to a global phenomenon. What is more, I reflect upon the current developments of EMI at tertiary education focusing on the spread of EMI into the global universities, EMI in European universities, EMI in Asian universities and EMI in Thai universities. In each section, I link the current literature review to my initial research at the end of the sections in order to form my research grounds.

1. The Historical Backgrounds of EMI

This section outlines the historical background of EMI in terms of a paradigm shift in teaching content subjects through the English language. This section provides information under three EMI periods, namely before, during and after transitional EMI periods.

Before an EMI period in the 1980s, Content-based Instruction (CBI) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) were the well-known approaches to teach subject contents through a second or foreign language (L2) in western countries. CBI is an approach to L2 teaching that focuses on the target language and content (Brinton, Snow, & Wesche, 1989; Crandall & Tucker, 1990). Swain and Johnson (1997) pointed out that CBI is most often associated with the genesis of language immersion education in North America in 1965. They
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