Or should I say it in English?

De English Medium Instruction (EMI) van de universiteit van Maastricht was voor een groot gedeelte de reden voor mij om in Maasticht te gaan studeren. Ik wilde deel uit maken van een wereld waar in mijn ogen Engels voor nodig is. Deze overtuiging is er nog steeds en EMI is een goede oplossing voor die zorgen. De keuze moet blijven bestaan en EMI is niet geschikt voor elke richting. Voor mij begint de lijn tussen mijn moedertaal en Engels wel langzaam te vervagen en dat kan wel lastig worden. Alleen de vraag al of ik dit wel in het Nederlands of in het Engels moet typen is er eentje die moeilijk voor mij te beantwoorden is. Dan maar afwisselen, net zoals ik in praktijk doe. Continue reading Or should I say it in English?

EMI and me

Before I started European Studies in Maastricht, english as a medium of instruction was already a method that I was familiar with. I went to primary school in Singapore and most subjects were taught in English, such as Science, Maths, Art etc. Every Singaporean student needed to choose a mother tongue, because Singapore has 4 official languages. Depending on your ethnicity, your mother tongue would be selected. Because my parents are Chinese, my mother tongue in Singapore was Mandarin and that was the language I had to learn in school. During those classes, the golden rule was that only Mandarin is allowed and English was not tolerated in that classroom. Hence, the medium of instruction for Chinese class was Mandarin.  Continue reading EMI and me

English, Do You Speak It?!

A little bit more than two years ago, I decided to start a Bachelor at the Maastricht University. The main reason for my choice was the content of the studies. However, the fact that English was the medium of instruction was also very important. Prior to starting the bachelor, I had a very good opinion toward using English for my upper education. Nonetheless, the idealism that I had in my early student years made ways gradually towards a more critical view on the use of English.

Continue reading English, Do You Speak It?!

Back to basi…English!

For someone who has been learning English from the age of 7, it is quite hard to imagine not being able to communicate in that language let alone not studying in English. Since as long as I can remember I have been studying the peculiarities, grammar and pronunciation of the English language and because I was so interested in it, English as a medium of instruction (EMI) is not necessarily anything new for me. However, the more I get acquainted with this language that I’ve know since childhood the more I start questioning the advantages and disadvantages of it is a language of instruction.

Continue reading Back to basi…English!

‘In English, please!’

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‘In English, please!’, our high school teachers used to tell us when we were talking in Dutch to each other in class. For me, this didn’t only apply to our English classes, but also to subjects such as history, mathematics or geography, as I went to a bilingual high school. Of course, we had the language skills to talk to each other in English, but we just didn’t feel like it. Dutch was easier, and it just felt strange to talk to each other in a foreign language. Some teachers even wanted us to talk to each other in English in the corridor, or during breaks. Sometimes, this led to rather funny situations where my friends and I suddenly switched to an exaggerated, extremely formal type of English when the teacher was close enough to hear us. On other occasions, we liked to talk to each other in Dunglish-  English with a very strong Dutch accent and mixed with Dutch vocabulary (“what ar joe going toe doe in de weekend? I know it not, have you sin to the bioscoop to go with me?”). Of course, this was also partially intended to mock the efforts of some teachers who insisted on the use of RP (received pronunciation), and correctness in speaking.

Some teachers even wanted us to talk to each other in English in the corridor, or during breaks

The next step – University English

Having finished high school, and deciding to enroll for a university programme taught entirely in English, I knew that I would be hearing less Dutch than I did during high school. According to Wilkinson (2011), EMI has today become commonplace in many institutes of higher education where English is not the native language. Maastricht University is a good example of an EMI (English as a medium of instruction) institution, as many of its programmes are offered entirely in English. EMI means that the main language of instruction is English, with the aim of increasing the abilities of students to speak, read and write in English.

The most intensive form of an English-language environment is, in my opinion, during tutorials. Not only are you listening to people speaking in English, you also speak English yourself and interact with other group members. This leads to a real immersion into the English language. Lectures are of course also an example of an English-language environment, but here the immersion occurs in a more passive way, because it is mainly the professor speaking, and the students listening.

Thus, the type of education which is common at Maastricht University can be labeled as CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), a term referring to receiving education of a specific subject in a language which is not the own language of the students. When a programme uses CLIL, there are both the aims of teaching the subject itself to students (content) and of learning to speak a foreign language (language learning). I think that, for a programme such as European studies, CLIL is a suitable method of teaching, because many students will choose to go abroad, for example to pursue an international career in an international organization or company.

 I thought I had learned to speak and write English on a reasonably high level at high school, but now it appeared that quite a lot of the others were much better in expressing themselves in English than I was.

When we had our first tutorial for the European studies programme at Maastricht University in September 2012 for the course ‘the Idea of Europe’, I was quite impressed by the level of English of some of my fellow students. I thought I had learned to speak and write English on a reasonably high level at high school, but now it appeared that quite a lot of the others were much better in expressing themselves in English than I was.

Reading academic English

For the first readings, I also had some difficulties in reading and understanding the type of English used. Suddenly, we had to read books such as ‘Inventing Europe’ by Gerard Delanty. Some of the wordings really puzzled me, and I sometimes had to read the same sentence up to five times to understand what it was what the author actually meant. His writing style is quite academic, and he likes to use sophisticated language. Even almost three years later, I would not be able to read his texts without struggling to find out what he actually meant. Of course, I think that reading such texts have contributed to my level of English, but I still doubt whether it was necessary to give us such tough reading materials already in the very first course of the first year of the programme.

 I sometimes had to read the same sentence up to five times to understand what it was what the author actually meant

I expected that my English would improve when compared to the first year, which indeed happened. However, I think that it was mainly in the first year that my English improved a lot. During the second and third year, there was some progress, but most of it was, I think , during the first year. In addition, we have learned to express ourselves in a more formal, acadamic way (“in addition” itself being an expression which I only started to use during university).

Reflection

Then, suddenly, you find yourself already in your third year, finishing your bachelor’s degree. Following a course on languages and multilingualism in Europe, it is the first time during the ES programme that we actually need to reflect on our own language use. I think that having been in an English-speaking environment has improved my ability to communicate in English. Of course, I had already been used to this during high school, where I had bilingual education. Still, I would not consider myself comparable to a native speaker of English.

Of course, this cannot really be expected from a student whose area of study is not English language and culture. As mr. Charles van Leeuwen (2015) discussed in his lecture, most people use English as a ‘lingua franca’, meaning a somewhat simplified form of English, which is still good enough for a large number of purposes. Thus, rather than having to speak ‘RP’, at university we can speak our not-so-perfect version of English, just like many of UM’s staff members. And this works fine. ‘In English, please’ – yes of course, but no need to talk like the queen’s mother.

Since My Apple Point to PBL Point

aplleI can’t remember my first moment of learning English. It might be ABC moment to me but I was too young then to remember now. The earliest moment of English which I can remember is when I learned how to spell A-P-P-L-E. The fact that English speakers spell apple like this was pretty shocking to me.(I don’t know why..) Anyway, after then, I have been developing my English until now as a medium of daily life and academic work. Continue reading Since My Apple Point to PBL Point

Do you speak English?!

Why English?

CLIL, lingua franca and EMI. This blog post will shed light on those abbreviations which all have to do with English and learning. English has advanced in the world and has become a lingua franca with more non native speakers than native speakers (Charles van Leeuwen, lecture, 23.04.2015). Knowing this surprising fact it is less surprising that a number of universities have introduced English as a medium of instruction (EMI). If one considers the advantages it brings with it it becomes even more apparent why a university would chose English over the national language.What exactly are those advantages? Wilkinson (2011) names a few in his article:

  • attracts foreign students
  • more revenue streams
  • more prestige
  • more researchers and future PhD candidates
  • better ranking positions
  • prepare domestic students for the international market
  • shapren the profile of the university
  • competitive survival

Continue reading Do you speak English?!

English Medium Instruction: Facing realities

Personally, I never experienced higher education in my native language. After completion of my “Abitur”, I went straight to the Netherlands to study in English. But why not study in Dutch if you already decided to study in the Netherlands? This might seem slightly contradictory in the beginning, but when facing today`s realities it makes great sense.

Continue reading English Medium Instruction: Facing realities