English in Asian Universities

EMI (English‐medium instruction) across the Asian region

“…Our intention in writing this article was to provide the general background to the four case studies on Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, and South Korea in this symposium. As many commentators, including Bolton and Botha (2020) have pointed out, EMI in Asian higher education can take a number of very different forms. For example, in the Singapore context, EMI education is strictly enforced by government edict at all levels of education.…”

“…As Bolton and Botha (2020) explain, there are major differences between Outer Circle and Expanding Circle contexts in Asia, with reference to the use of English as a medium of instruction in higher education.…”

EMI (English‐medium instruction) in South Korean elite universities

“…The method used in collecting data was that of a ‘snowball survey’, where students at various universities in or near the capital city, Seoul, were asked to complete the questionnaire and to recruit other students to participate in the survey. The Qualtrics‐based questionnaire for the survey was written in both English and Korean and posted online on a specially designated website, with a detailed questionnaire containing 68 questions featuring both closed and open questions, partly drawn from earlier surveys in Hong Kong, Sweden and Singapore (Bolton, Botha, & Bacon‐Shone, 2017). The online survey continued collecting data from late May until August 2017, after which the data was checked for consistency, and the results collated and analysed.…”

“…Government initiatives such as the ‘Brain Korea 21 Project’ (1999) and the ‘World Class University Project’ (2008) were introduced to promote global competitiveness among the country's universities, and that English Medium Instruction (EMI) programmes and policies have been included in such initiatives. As a result of such internationalization initiatives, university rankings have become a much‐discussed topic in the country's media, and higher education institutions have increasingly incorporated EMI courses, citing such reasons as internationalization, competitiveness, and globalization (Bolton & Botha, 2020). International students who did not study through the medium of English in their home countries, and who wish to study at Korean universities need a recognized English proficiency test score in order to be admitted, such as IELTS or TOEFL, with the minimum requirement usually a score of TOEFL 80 (Internet‐based) or IELTS 5.5.…”

EMI (English‐medium instruction) in Singapore's major universities

“…In Singapore, over the last few decades, more and more young people have entered higher education, and, today, around 42% of young people are currently enrolled in various universities, while university graduates constitute more than 32% of the adult population (Davie, 2021; SingStat, 2020a). Over the last five years, the authors of this chapter have been engaged in studying the use of languages among Singapore university students, and the research reported on below has been part of that project (Bolton & Botha, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021; Bolton, Botha, & Bacon‐Shone, 2017). This article begins with a description of Singaporean higher education, with an overview of the nation's six major universities.…”