Understanding Educational Research

Welcome to this brand new series of Understanding Educational Research with me. In the episodes to come, I'll walk you through some of the most established journals in the fields of education and applied linguistics. For each publication, an abstract is a key brief paragraph that summarises all of the most important points for research. Through learning the abstracts, we will understand the context, the aims, the methodology, and the findings of a study. In each episode, I'll hand pick 2 interesting pieces of abstracts and share my thoughts about them with you.

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UER #1| Multilingualism in South Africa and Canada

Today's keyword: multilingualism

Papers mentioned:

Mbirimi-Hungwe, V., 2021. An insight into South African multilingual students’ perceptions about using translanguaging during group discussion. Applied Linguistics, 42(2), pp.252-268.

Séror, J. and Weinberg, A., 2021. Exploring the longitudinal impact of university immersion: Bilingual spaces, multilingual values. System, p.102523.

UER #2| Native English vs Global Englishes

Today's keyword: Global Englishes

Papers mentioned:

Rahman, M.M., and Singh, M.K.M., 2021. English Medium university STEM teachers’ and students’ ideologies in constructing content knowledge through translanguaging. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, pp.1-19.

Boonsuk, Y., Ambele, E.A. and McKinley, J., 2021. Developing awareness of Global Englishes: Moving away from ‘native standards’ for Thai university ELT. System, 99, p.102511.

UER #3| Is English or Spanish better?

Today's keyword: English Medium Instruction

Papers mentioned:

Dafouz, E. and Camacho-Miñano, M.M., 2016. Exploring the impact of English-medium instruction on university student academic achievement: The case of accounting. English for Specific Purposes, 44, pp.57-67.

Vidal, K. and Jarvis, S., 2020. Effects of English-medium instruction on Spanish students’ proficiency and lexical diversity in English. Language Teaching Research, 24(5), pp.568-587.

UER #4: What are teachers thinking?

Today's keyword: Teachers' perceptions

Papers mentioned:

Abouzeid, R., 2021. Aligning perceptions with reality: Lebanese EMI instructor perceptions of students’ writing proficiency. English for Specific Purposes, 63, pp.45-58.

Mancho-Barés, G. and Aguilar-Pérez, M., 2020. EMI lecturers’ practices in correcting English: Resources for language teaching?. Journal of immersion and content-based language education.

UER #5: How are students coping?

Today's keyword: Learning strategy

Papers mentioned:

Tai, T.E. and Tang, C.W., 2020. The role of graduate students’ learning strategies in reducing their English medium instruction avoidance: the mediation effect of language anxiety. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, pp.1-17.

Yu, S., Wang, Y., Jiang, L. and Wang, B., 2020. Coping with EMI (English as a medium of instruction): Mainland China students’ strategies at a university in Macau. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, pp.1-11.

UER #6: How good do you think you are?

Today's keyword: Self-efficacy

Papers mentioned:

Wang, C. and Sun, T., 2020. Relationship between self-efficacy and language proficiency: A meta-analysis. System, 95, p.102

Yabukoshi, T., 2021. Self-regulation and self-efficacy for the improvement of listening proficiency outside the classroom. The Language Learning Journal, 49(1), pp.27-40.

UER #7: How do you define EMI success?

Today's keyword: EMI success

Papers mentioned:

Curle, S., Yuksel, D., Soruç, A. and Altay, M., 2020. Predictors of English Medium Instruction academic success: English proficiency versus first language medium. System, 95, p.102378.

Thompson, G., Aizawa, I., Curle, S. and Rose, H., 2019. Exploring the role of self-efficacy beliefs and learner success in English medium instruction. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, pp.1-14.

UER #8: To be native or to be non-native?

Today's keyword: Native speaker

Papers mentioned:

An, J., Macaro, E. and Childs, A., 2019. Language focused episodes by monolingual teachers in English Medium Instruction science lessons. Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, 7(2), pp.166-191.

An, J., Macaro, E. and Childs, A., 2021. Classroom interaction in EMI high schools: Do teachers who are native speakers of English make a difference?. System, 98, p.102482.

UER #9: Costs and benefits of higher education internationalisation

Today's keyword: Internationalisation of Higher Education

Papers mentioned:

Galloway, N., Numajiri, T. and Rees, N., 2020. The ‘internationalisation’, or ‘Englishisation’, of higher education in East Asia. Higher Education, 80(3), pp.395-414.

Huang, H. and Curle, S., 2021. Higher education medium of instruction and career prospects: an exploration of current and graduated Chinese students’ perceptions. Journal of Education and Work, pp.1-13.

UER #10: Can and how we learn languages?

Today's keyword: Student agency

Papers mentioned:

Jiang, A.L. and Zhang, L.J., 2019. Chinese students’ perceptions of English learning affordances and their agency in an English-medium instruction classroom context. Language and Education, 33(4), pp.322-339.

Thompson, G., Takezawa, N. and Rose, H., 2021. Investigating self-beliefs and success for English medium instruction learners studying finance. Journal of Education for Business, pp.1-8.

UER #11: How aware we are of languages?

Today's keyword: Language awareness

Papers mentioned:

Graham, K.M., Eslami, Z.R. and Hillman, S., 2021. From English as the medium to English as a medium: Perspectives of EMI students in Qatar. System, 99, p.102508.

Fang, F. and Ren, W., 2018. Developing students’ awareness of Global Englishes. ELT Journal, 72(4), pp.384-394.