English Medium Instruction: Expanding Notions of English Hegemony and Colonization

Abstract

This Chapter provides the background to the EMI research undertaken which has provided the evidence base for this book. It acknowledges internationalization of higher education within the current neoliberal global economy, and the swift move in the countries of the Expanding Circle towards EMI delivery as a strategy to expand academics’ and universities’ global agendas. This Chapter points to the theoretical and methodological limitations in current EMI research as convenient and unsystematic. Consequently, the knowledge generation to inform EMI teaching is limited. It concludes with an outline of the structure of the book highlighting the key foci for each Chapter.