CIELT Journal Article Siti Shaliha - 2009120033
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using English as a Medium of Instruction in The Classroom The English language has played an important role so far, and its role is becoming increasingly important in the era of globalization. The growing need for English as a key to global communication, relations, and information constantly increased and began to cover all aspects of life. One of the aspects that have covered by English is education. Seeing the great opportunities for the use of the language, recently many schools and universities have adopted English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI). This happens not only in ESL but also in some countries where English is a foreign language for example Indonesia. In some countries where English is a foreign language the use of EMI is no longer a new phenomenon (Ibrahim, 2001). As the demand of the globalization era, some teachers in EFL classroom have used EMI to teach the lesson to the students. The implementation of EMI in EFL classroom context can bring both advantages and disadvantages in the learning process. One of the advantages of its implementation is students can improve their level of English proficiency on four English language skills, while the disadvantage is the use of EMI can cause greater difficulties in understanding the course content and inhibited them from expressing themselves fluently in the class (Chang, 2010). In response to that issue, many researches have been conducted to examine the use of EMI, especially in teaching content-subject in EFL classroom. This issue becomes a debatable issue until now. It's because there are two different perspectives which agree and disagree with the implementation of EMI in the classroom. Some researchers who agree about the implementation of EMI in the classroom try to support their opinions by showing some advantages of it in their researches. They also bring some facts to strengthen their arguments that EMI is possible to use in teaching and learning process and it is effective to be implemented in the classroom. As a research conducted by Ibrahim (2010) which shown that the use EMI in the classroom can give cognitive advantages both for teacher and students, motivated teachers and students to learn the language and give teacher and students more exposure to English and more chances to acquire it. This research finding proves that the use of EMI is effective to be implemented in the classroom.
CIELT Journal Article Siti Shaliha - 2009120033
Related to those findings, another research conducted by Chang (2010) in Taiwan that also shown the advantages by using EMI in the classroom. He found that teaching subjectcourse in English can promote students’ interest and motivation in learning the English language, and hence improve their English proficiency. In his research also stated that students who receive EMI in their classroom tended to show a more positive learning attitude (Wu, 2006). Haagen-Schützenhöfer, C. & Mathelitsch, L (n. d) also mentioned in their research that the instruction of subject-content such Physics through the medium of a foreign language often increases students’ motivation. They added that students find the subject much more interesting when the instruction given in English. As this paper has been discussed before that the use of EMI also brings disadvantages in teaching in learning process. They said that the use of EMI can make students feel difficult in understanding the content of the lesson. As Chang (2010) stated in his research that the use of EMI can cause greater difficulties in understanding the course content and inhibited them from expressing themselves fluently in the class. He also added that the use of EMI might be helpful in improving students receive skills but it did not help them in comprehending subject-content. Hsieh and Kang (2007) and Wu (2006) reported similar results in their researches. Another research conducted by Ocampo (n.d) also said that the use of English as a medium of instruction possess double difficulty for the students – that of learning and understanding English and learning and understanding the science and math concepts which are being taught. In EFL classroom context there are also some problems that might be the reasons why some researchers do not agree about the implementation of EMI such as the dilemma between ‘instruction’ and ‘English’, the unsupportive environment in acquiring English in EFL classroom, the general lack of English proficiency among students and teachers, the ‘context-reduced’ nature of classroom communication, and the limited of classroom discourse (Ibrahim, 2001). Given the possible advantages and disadvantages of EMI implementation above, we can conclude that there are some advantages and disadvantages in using EMI in the classroom. The advantages are students can improve their English level of proficiency and more motivated in learning, while the disadvantages are students will be found some
CIELT Journal Article Siti Shaliha - 2009120033
difficulties in understanding the lesson. Hence, to help students in understanding the lesson it will be better if the teachers use the bilingual approach to give the instruction to the students. It means that the use of English is still dominant in the classroom but there are certain situation when the teachers have to switch the language into their students’ mother tongue, for example when the teacher explain about the content. It will be more helpful for the students to understand the content. As Nation (2001) stated that mother L1 has a small but important role to communicate meaning and content. Mother tongue can bring some advantages to the students’ learning process in the EFL classroom, especially when they learn about subject-content. Therefore, mother tongue cannot be avoided in L2 classroom since it can bring some benefits to the classroom, especially with beginners (Willis and Willis, 2007).
CIELT Journal Article Siti Shaliha - 2009120033
References: Chang. (2010). English-medium instruction for subject courses in tertiary education: Reactions from Taiwanese undergraduate students. Taiwan International ESP Journal, 2 (1), 55-84. Retrieved on April 29, 2012 from http://www.tespa.org.tw/papers/02/03%20Englishmedium%20instruction%20for%20subject%20courses%20in%20tertiary%20educatio n-Reactions%20from%20Taiwanese%20undergraduate%20students_YuYing%20Chang.PDF Coleman. (n.d). Indonesia’s ‘international standard schools’: What are they for?. Academia.edu. Retrieved on April 29, 2012 from http://leeds.academia.edu/HywelColeman/Papers/721002/Indonesias_International_St andard_Schools_What_are_they_for Farrugia. (2003). The use of English as medium of instruction in Maltese mathematics classroom: Continuing the debate. Journal of Maltese Education Research, 1 (2), 1-14. Retrieved on April 29, 2012 from http://www.um.edu.mt/educ/about/publications/mrer/files/JMERN1I2P1.pdf Haagen-Schützenhöfer, C. & Mathelitsch, L. (n. d). English as a medium of instruction in science-teaching. Retrieved on April 30, 2012 from http://www.fisica.uniud.it/girepseminar2001/CS06/HAAGEN_03_FINAL.pdf Robertson & Nunn. 2006. English second language acquisition in the Asian context. Asian EFL journal press: Seoul Samuelson & Freedman. (2010). Language policy, multilingual education, and power in Rwanda. Lang Policy, 9, 191-215. Retrieved on April 29, 2012 from http://gse.berkeley.edu/faculty/swfreedman/10samuelson_freedman.pdf
