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Language ideology of English-medium instruction in higher education

A case study from Bangladesh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2019

Mohammad Mosiur Rahman*
Affiliation:
School of Languages, Literacies and Translation, Universiti Sains Malaysia BRAC Institute of Languages, BRAC University

Extract

English-medium instruction (EMI) has been perceived as a key strategy through which universities, propelled by academic, political, social and economic motives, respond to the influence of globalisation (Altbach & Knight, 2007). This has been fuelled by the fact that English, defined as the global common language, is needed to create the knowledge base in global tertiary education (Fishman, 2000). In the process, English has become the universal second language of advanced education (Brumfit, 2004), due to the value attached to the language in present times and the advantage of using the language in the existing global language order (Zhang, 2017). These motivations have contributed to the global phenomenon of English being the medium of instruction (MOI), and higher education has been the venue where EMI could be implemented more consistently (Dearden, 2014). This has resulted in the generation of a growing body of work on how universities plan their language policies (Liddicoat, 2016).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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