Whose Lingua Franca?: The Politics of Language in Transnational Medical Education

English, super‐diversity, and identity in the State of Qatar

“…Or at least, they were supposed to be taught in English. In reality, both then and still now, it is often only the ‘texts, tests, and terminology’ or the ‘3 Ts’ that are taught in English (Kane, , p. 96). These schools were meant to enhance national competitiveness, to increase the numbers of Qataris in the workforce, and according to the Qatari government, ‘English was deemed important for use in the labour market and to prepare students for postsecondary education abroad’ (Brewer et al., , p. 100).…”

“…They view IBCs as more prestigious than QU and essential for future job prospects. The acculturation process for students entering one of Education City's IBCs in Qatar can be especially difficult for those who have attended Arabic‐medium schools with ‘native teachers’ and a ‘local curriculum,’ adding ‘temporal and social burdens of studying in a language other than their native tongue’ (Kane, , p. 97). Similar to findings in the UAE (Van den Hoven & Carroll, , p. 39), some students seem to experience an abrupt transition from Arabic to EMI.…”

“…While blame can be put on the K‐12 system or on the students themselves, most of these IBC institutions also have monolingual mindsets which it comes to their curricula and evaluating the usage of English of their students. Kane (, p. 96) writes that at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar ‘faculty actively discourage the speaking of Arabic within classrooms, laboratories, and clinical settings’ and critiques how ‘fluency in English, specifically American English, is a prerequisite for Qataris wishing to participate in the nation's modernizing project’. In reality, we have observed like Nebel () that students bring multiple dialects and languages into these IBC classrooms and make strategic choices with their available languages to negotiate meaning and comprehend.…”

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“…EMI is not benign and has consequences both academically, professionally, and personally. Kane (2014) shares a story about a medical student who learned meningitis as "an abstract concept" and never made the connection to background knowledge on the disease in Arabic until the student had seen a bilingual leaflet in a hospital (p. 108). From an academic perspective, one could ask whether this medical student had learned anything at all having not made this connection in class.…”

Epistemological and Ontological Challenges of Transnational Foundation Year Medical Students

“…These students are required to develop a toolkit of new cultural competencies and coping strategies in order to successfully navigate within and through the new and unknown space of transnational education. In this specific context, such competencies and strategies are focused on the linguistic shift from students' native Arabic language towards the lingua franca of medicine, which is English (Kane, 2014).…”