The Secret Life Of English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education

Block, David & Khan, Sarah (Eds.) (2021). The Secret Life of English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education: Examining Microphenomena in Context. London: Routledge. 

This edited volume explores the inner-workings of English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education (HE). After an introductory chapter that sets the scene and provides an essential background, there are four empirically based chapters that draw on data collected from a range of sources at two universities in Catalonia. These chapters examine the following issues: (1) the choice of either English or Catalan as the medium of instruction by HE students and lecturers; (2) how HE students display ambivalence towards EMI, as well as a general lack of enthusiasm towards and an ironic distance from 'doing education’; (3) how HE students resist EMI by contravening its English monolingual norm, using their L1s in the classroom; and finally, (4) how HE EMI lecturers on occasion act as English language teachers despite their continued claims to the contrary. The book ends with a concluding chapter that draws all of the strands together around key themes, linking the book's content to EMI in HE contexts around the world.