Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-2r2wp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-13T07:58:45.165Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Emergent STEM lecturer identities: The shaping effects of EMI in action in an internationalised and Englishised HE context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2020

David Block
David Block*
Affiliation:
ICREA & Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
*
Email: davidmartin.block@upf.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the emergent identities of three STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) lecturers, focusing especially on how they construct themselves with regard to their disciplines and how researchers construct them as potential English language teachers. It begins with essential background information before discussing identity as a key construct. The paper then moves to the presentation of a Foucauldian-inflected version of positioning theory which is employed as a means of understanding the construction of English-medium instruction (EMI) STEM lecturer identities. In the second half of the paper, there is a discussion of three case-studies of EMI STEM lecturers, which shows how each orientates to his or her subject discipline, and the prospect of acting, on occasion, as an English language teacher. Specifically, there is a detailed consideration of how EMI lecturers position themselves in their contacts with researchers and in their teaching; how their self-positionings are consistent or not with how researchers position them; and how self-positionings are similar or different across EMI lecturers. The paper ends with a discussion of what conclusions can be drawn from the research findings.

Information

Type
Plenary Speech
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 388 - 406
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

Plenary presented at ‘Multilingualism and Identity: Interdisciplinary Perspectives’, University of Cambridge, 12–13 September 2019.

References

Airey, J. (2012). I don't teach language: The linguistic attitudes of physics lecturers in Sweden. AILA Review, 25, 64–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, W., & Hüttner, J. (2017). English and more: A multisite study of roles and conceptualisations of language in English medium multilingual universities from Europe to Asia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38(6), 501–516.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, W., & Hüttner, J. (2019). ‘We are not the language police’: Comparing multilingual EMI programmes in Europe and Asia. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 29(1), 78–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bauman, Z. (2004). Identity. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Block, D. (2015). Becoming a language teacher: Constraints and negotiation in the emergence of new identities. Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature, 8(3), 9–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Block, D. (to appear). Using a version of positioning theory to show how identity is made in interaction. In Ayres-Bennett, W. & Fisher, L. (Eds.), Multilingualism and identity: Interdisciplinary perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Block, D., & Khan, S. (to appear, a). The secret life of English-medium instruction: Setting the scene. In Block, D. & Khan, S. (Eds.), The secret life of EMI. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Block, D., & Khan, S. (Eds.). (to appear, b). The secret life of EMI. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Block, D., & Mancho-Barés, G. (to appear). NOT English teachers, except when they are: The curious case of oral presentation evaluation rubrics in an EMI-in-HE context. In Block, D., & Khan, S. (Eds.), The secret life of EMI. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Block, D., & Moncada-Comas, B. (2019). English-medium instruction in higher education and the ELT Gaze: STEM lecturers’ self-positioning as NOT English language teachers. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2019.1689917CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4–5), 585–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh, D. (2010). Content and language integrated learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dafouz, E. (2014). Integrating content and language in European higher education: An overview of recurrent research concerns and pending issues. In Psaltou-Joycey, A., Agathopoulou, E., & Mattheoudakis, M. (Eds.), Cross-curricular approaches to language education (pp. 289–304). Cambridge, : Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Dafouz, E., & Smit, U. (2016). Towards a dynamic conceptual framework for English-medium education in multilingual university settings. Applied Linguistics, 37(3), 397–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dafouz, E., & Smit, U. (2019). ROAD-MAPPING English medium education in the internationalised university. London, UK: Palgrave McMillan.Google Scholar
Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1999). Positioning and personhood. In Harré, R., & van Langenhove, L. (Eds.), Positioning theory (pp. 32–52). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Dearden, J. (2015). English as a medium of instruction: A growing global phenomenon. London: British Council. Retrieved from: https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/e484_emi_-_cover_option_3_final_web.pdfGoogle Scholar
Foucault, M. (1989 [1969]). The archaeology of knowledge. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (2003 [1973]). The birth of the clinic: An archaeology of medical perception. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gee, J. P. (2011). Introduction to discourse analysis (3rd ed.). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gray, J., & Morton, T. (2018). Social interaction and English language teacher Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Hall, S. (1996). Introduction: Who needs ‘identity’? In Hall, S., & du Gay, P. (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 1–17). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Harré, R. (2012). Positioning theory: Moral dimensions of social-cultural psychological. In Valsiner, J. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 191–206). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2012-04461-000Google Scholar
Hyland, K. (2012). Disciplinary identities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lanvers, U., & Hultgren, A. K. (2018). The Englishization of European education: Foreword. European Journal of Language Policy, 10(1), 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lasagabaster, D. (2019). The impact of the spread of English-medium instruction on Spanish universities. Language Teaching, 52(2), 241–247.Google Scholar
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Law, D., & Hoey, M. (2017). Perspectives on the internationalisation of higher education. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Macaro, E. (2018). English-medium instruction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macaro, E., Curle, S., Pun, J., An, J., & Dearden, J. (2018). A systematic review of English medium instruction in higher education. Language Teaching, 51(1), 36–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moncada-Comas, B., & Block, D. (2019). CLIL-ised EMI in practice: Issues arising. The Language Learning Journal. https://doi.org/10.1080/09571736.2019.1660704CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moran, M. (2015). Identity and capitalism. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preece, S. (Ed.). (2016). The Routledge handbook of language and identity. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seymour, S. (2006). Resistance. Anthropological Theory, 6(3), 303–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smyth, J. (2017). The toxic university: Zombie leadership, academic rock stars and neoliberal ideology. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UdL (Universitat de Lleida). (2013). Pla Operatiu per al Multilingüisme a la UdL 2013–2018. Lleida, Catalonia, Spain: Universitat de Lleida.Google Scholar
Vertovec, S. (2009). Transnationalism. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weedon, C. (1987). Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Zenker, O. (2018). Language and identity. In Callan, H. (Ed.), The international Encyclopedia of Anthropology (Vol. 7, pp. 3616–3622). Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, D. H. (1998). Identity, context and interaction. In Antaki, C. & Widdicombe, S. (Eds.), Identities in talk (pp. 87–107). London: Sage.Google Scholar