Abstract
Research into English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education has extensively addressed the issue of academic language, problematising the ‘E’ in EMI as “standard” English, a lingua franca, or part of translingual or disciplinary literacy (cf., Kuteeva, 2020).
Notions of translanguaging
The latest surge of blended learning (i.e., online academic activities combined with traditional campus-based classroom methods) forces students in EMI programmes to develop communicative competence to cope with different forms of interaction for learning. To this end, students must go beyond English/language and employ a multitude of communicative resources (e.g., multimodalities, objects, and technologies).
In this study, I draw upon the notions of translanguaging (Li, 2018) and spatial repertoire (Canagarajah, 2018) to explore a new conceptualisation of communicative competence for blended learning in EMI, accentuating multimodal and material resources as part of students’ integrated repertoires for academic communication.
Study conducted at Chalmers University of Technology
This on-going (linguistic ethnography) pilot study is conducted at Chalmers University of Technology from September to December 2021. Multiple sources of data (i.e., interviews, observations, and video/audio/pictorial recorded student interaction) are collected from students of diverse linguacultural backgrounds at different EMI master’s programmes.
Findings
In this seminar talk, I will present a content analysis of the interviews and a multimodal discourse analysis of student interaction.
The findings, I hope, will (1) illuminate the complex mechanisms by which students configure linguistic and non-linguistic resources to accomplish academic tasks, and (2) reveal linguistic challenges and competence development needs in blended learning environments.
References
- Canagarajah, S. (2018). Translingual practice as spatial repertoires: Expanding the paradigm beyond structuralist orientations. Applied Linguistics, 39(1), 31-54.
- Kuteeva, M. (2020). Revisiting the ‘E’ in EMI: students’ perceptions of standard English, lingua franca and translingual practices. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(3), 287-300.
- Li, W. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied linguistics, 39(1), 9-30.
