Maastricht vs Ankara…
Today Iam going to explain to you my personal experience with English as a medium of instruction (EMI). I have studied European Studies at Maastricht University now for two and a half years. Furthermore, I was on an exchange in Ankara where the medium of instruction was likewise English. The level of competence that was expected from us in the first year was quite high. Already the second course anticipated a 5000 words paper. Simultaneously, our bachelor course offered an academic writing skills tutorial that introduced to us the style of English that was expected from us when writing these academic papers. After taking this course my writing skill increased dramatically as I learned how to structure my thoughts and put them together in a comprehensive text. As I spent the year before my bachelor studies in England I came to Maastricht with a good ability to speak, which has helped me to participate in the tutorials straight away. In Maastricht, as opposed to Bilkent University in Ankara, only a couple of courses are offered with EMI. Therefore, at Bilkent every student has to take his or her classes in English. I noticed that these students did not have the same level of English as fellow students from Maastricht. At this place I want to bring in Shohamy’s (2012) critique on EMI with the issue of content vs quality. She argues that students who are less acquainted with the language of instruction naturally would achieve lower academic results. Content was often not fully understood and students were too shy to ask the instructor to repeat himself or herself. Therefore, the workload and what was expected from us did not match the standards of Maastricht University. In my opinion it makes a lot of sense to instruct some courses that are designed for an international career in English. However, when EMI becomes the language policy of an entire University I agree with Shohamy and see the standard of teaching endangered.
EMI and our globalised world…
Wilkinson (2011) explains how Universities follow financial interests by offering courses thought in English. It attracts national as well as international students and fosters diversity and intercultural exchange between different nationalities. For a course like European Studies I can say that I strongly support the choice of English as a medium of instruction. Students from all over Europe and beyond shall contribute to the content of this course from different cultural perspectives. For that choosing one language is the most efficient way in order to achieve good communication. However, such an environment leads to the demise of all other languages (exept for German in Maastricht due to the high amount of German speakers). Therefore, a course like European Studies could offer extracurricular cultural events that would place the language, food and music culture of a particular country in the foreground for other students to explore. Furthermore, learning another language should be part of the course agenda to promote multilingualism and circumvent the dominant nature of the presence of the English language to take the universal place within the academic environment.