ABSTRACT
In recent years, an exponential growth of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) practices has been witnessed in tertiary education in countries and regions where English is learned as a foreign language (EFL). This phenomenon has raised concerns about the pedagogical and learning issues specific to these contexts. This chapter first reviews the development of EMI at the tertiary level in non-native English-speaking (NNES) contexts, with a particular focus on its growth and impacts in Chinese-speaking higher education (HE) contexts. The pedagogical challenges and learning problems encountered in the NNES classroom are then presented in connection with a discussion on the essence of using English as a major instructional language, suggesting redefining EMI as a continuum of English use to deliver content knowledge, rather than a practice of English-only policy. Finally, this chapter ends with a statement of the aims of this book and brief introductions to the following chapters.
