Does English-Medium Instruction Benefit Students in EFL Contexts? A Case Study of Medical Students in Korea
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Does English-Medium Instruction Benefit Students in EFL Contexts? A Case Study of Medical Students in Korea YoonJu Joe • Hee-Kyung Lee
Published online: 1 September 2012 Ó De La Salle University 2012
Abstract With an increase in English-medium courses in universities in non-English speaking countries, various concerns have been raised such as difficulty of students’ lecture comprehension and ineffective interaction between lecturers and students. This study scrutinized relationships among Korean medical students’ comprehension of and satisfaction with English-medium lectures and their general English proficiency. Sixty-one medical students taking a required medical course participated in the study. The students’ data concerning their lecture comprehension and perceptions were collected by means of pre- and post-tests and survey questionnaires during English-medium and Korean-medium lectures. It was found that the medium of instruction had no effect on the understanding of the lecture and that students’ general English proficiency was not related to their lecture comprehension. In the survey, students expressed diverse needs for English such as LI summaries of main points and remedial English courses in general or medical English. Based on the results, suggestions and recommendations for the implementation of EMI courses in Korea are suggested. Keywords Medium of instruction EMI Medical education English for academic purposes
Introduction In an era of globalization in which English proficiency determines the competitiveness of individuals and nations, increasing the number of English-medium courses has Y. Joe H.-K. Lee (&) Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea e-mail: [email protected]
become one of the most significant issues in universities in non-English speaking countries, particularly in Asia (Chia et al. 1999; Evans 2002; Evans and Green 2007; Flowerdew et al. 1998; Kirkgo¨z 2009). In fact, plentiful studies have confirmed that English-medium instruction (EMI) in universities is one of the most effective ways to improve students’ English proficiency by capitalizing on their experiences of using English to acquire their subject knowledge (Wesche and Skehan 2002). Inspired by this belief, many universities in Korea have striven to promote English-medium lectures for the last decade. For instance, the university in which the current study was carried out aimed to execute up to 35 % of all lectures in EMI by 2010. However, as the number of English-medium lectures increases, so have concerns related to the effectiveness of English-medium courses. Those courses taught by nonnative speakers (NNS) of English lecturers, which is the case at many Korean universities, may result in inefficiency in content delivery, difficulty in interactions between teachers and students, lack of lecturers’ English proficiency, and students’ problem with theory conceptualization (Klaassen and Graaff 2001; Kim 2002; Olsen and Huckin 1990; Yip et al. 2007). In fact, Korean students in English-medium classes tend to use Korean rather
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