ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the role of English in a Chinese university’s undertaking of internationalisation in response to the national call to ‘go global’, with the focus on its English-medium instruction (EMI) provided to international students. It contextualises the inquiry by discussing language issues pertaining to internationalisation from a perspective informed by a body of research on English as a lingua franca (ELF). The data, retrieved through document analysis, interviews and classroom observation, reveal the complexity of language management in the university. Not only the university provides EMI to attract international students, but also EMI participants, including staff and students, rely on ELF in educational practice. However, the university is committed to following the national endeavour to spread Chinese as a global language and promote it among international students in the form of Chinese-medium instruction (CMI). Meanwhile, EMI staff suffer from inadequate language management in relation to content teaching or regard the Chinese language as beneficial for international students. Subsequently, the expectations about CMI as complementary to EMI are discussed. Towards the end, the needs for and the challenges to EMI invite the re/consideration of the support to the role of English in China’s higher education internationalisation.
