English in the Classroom: Meeting the Challenge of English-Medium Instruction in International Business Schools

Reflecting on the hundreds of business schools using English as a language of instruction with linguistically diverse students, ¹ an observer can find cause for both optimism and concern. The most obvious reason for optimism is that this model works. On one hand, business schools in Anglophone countries attract large numbers of international students every year, whom we must assume reach their educational goals and continue on to professional success despite having studied through a foreign language. Otherwise this international approach to higher education would not remain popular. Similarly, business schools outside native English-speaking countries are offering some or all of their instruction in English. This too is a trend that is intensifying, and again there is no reason to believe the graduates of these institutions have failed to learn in these settings or failed to succeed professionally. In other words, business education in English works.