Journal of English-Medium Instruction - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2026

In keeping with the marked expansion of English-medium instruction (EMI) in Asian contexts, this study offers detailed evaluation of academic language support for EMI courses in a Vietnamese university. It explores academic language needs and current provision of support and challenges through the perceptions of multiple stakeholder groups: students, language instructors and content lecturers. Data was obtained from 10 semi-structured interviews with teaching staff and a questionnaire involving 175 students. Survey data was processed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics while interview data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated a general alignment between teachers’ and students’ views on students’ current abilities, but a divergence in their perceptions of target academic language needs. Moreover, language and content teachers were found to offer support mostly in areas of writing and reading, and their focus was on either teaching generic skills or assisting content comprehension, respectively, rather than catering to subject-specific language as desired by students. Key challenges to their support were identified, including students’ limited English proficiency and motivation, coordination issues and time constraints. Finally, practical implications regarding teachers’ pedagogical roles and professional development, as well as institutional guidance in the implementation of language support in EMI contexts, were discussed.

The implementation of English-medium instruction (EMI) is expanding rapidly in higher education worldwide. In Israel, the Council of Higher Education Israel’s 2019 reform includes EMI integration to enhance internationalisation. Despite its growing adoption, there is limited research on its impact on Israeli students, particularly from their perspectives. This study investigates perceived needs of BSc engineering students at an engineering college in Israel in the context of four EMI courses. Pre- and post-course interviews with 37 students explored their experiences with course content, language proficiency challenges, and resource utilisation. Findings reveal that complex material, exams in English, and understanding lectures challenge students and influence their needs. This results in them deploying proactive, self-regulated strategies to cope with EMI course content through digital resources. The study highlights the importance of providing tailored language support and continuous assistance to help students self-regulate their study skills and judicious use of digital tools. Integrating EAP as a foundational element to leverage students’ self-study skills and use of tools for language learning can facilitate effective learning in EMI settings.

This scoping review focuses on the range and nature of research on the employability of English-medium instruction (EMI) university graduates, with a view to pointing the way forward in this emerging research interest. A wide-ranging and systematic search of the literature uncovered 46 potentially eligible research papers. Screening determined 14 empirical studies were appropriate for data extraction in concentrating on the experiences of EMI alumni within the labour market. The extracted studies focus on contexts within the greater Asian region. Overall, findings on the professional benefits of EMI study are mixed. An EMI degree may increase professional opportunities at home and abroad. Yet some EMI alumni experienced difficulties in acquiring suitable graduate-level positions and may not always receive enough workplace recognition. It remains difficult to reach firm conclusions about the vocational value of EMI study, however, as the corporate perspective on the value of EMI credentials in the job market is almost universally neglected. This overview of an important subfield of EMI research calls for a more sophisticated and contextually sensitive approach to researching post-EMI outcomes.

[This keynote paper was presented at the International Multidisciplinary Conference on English as a Catalyst for Knowledge Transfer and Collaboration in European University Alliances, organised by AGH University of Kraków on 11–12 September 2025.]

This paper should be seen as a response to persistent fragmentation in English-medium instruction (EMI) policy, pedagogy, and scholarship. Rather than adding to the field’s growing “research noise”, it advances a solution oriented paradigm (SoP) grounded in a political — normative argument: EMI must be theorised and professionalised as an institutional practice rather than reduced to a linguistic or methodological problem. Anchored in critical social theory and sociocultural theory, and coordinated through an integrative program of epistemic coordination, the paper reframes EMI as a political choice, a culturally embedded practice, and an accountable professional domain. I argue that EMI quality can only be understood as alignment between policy, pedagogy, and student learning outcomes, and illustrate how this alignment can be operationalised through the EMI professionalisation framework (EMI ProF). Written in a keynote register adapted to journal convention, this paper aims to speak with, not just to, international EMI stakeholders, calling for collaboration, innovation, and transformation as necessary conditions for sustainable, equitable, and learning centred EMI futures.