Sustainable EMI Practices

Sustainable English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) practices refer to teaching approaches that are pedagogically sound, institutionally supported, and culturally responsive over time. While EMI continues to expand across universities globally—especially in Asia—the long-term success of EMI depends not only on language proficiency, but also on institutional planning, lecturer support, learner inclusion, and curriculum design that balances both content and language learning.

1. Balancing Content and Language Learning

A sustainable EMI system must acknowledge that content learning and language development are interdependent. Lecturers should integrate strategies such as scaffolding academic vocabulary, explaining discipline-specific terminology, and providing language frames for student responses. Such practices do not “reduce” academic rigor; instead, they increase access to disciplinary knowledge.

For example, a business lecturer might explicitly teach the structure of a market analysis report while also modeling the language used to express comparisons or evaluate data. This dual-layered support helps students build conceptual understanding while enhancing academic English fluency.

2. Institutional Professional Development for EMI Lecturers

Sustainable EMI depends heavily on the capacity and confidence of lecturers. Professional development programs should not only focus on English proficiency, but also on teaching methodologies for multilingual classrooms. Workshops on clear verbal communication, managing diverse student proficiencies, or designing visual-material support can empower lecturers to deliver EMI efficiently.

Institutions should avoid placing the entire burden of EMI success on the lecturer alone. Support structures such as peer mentoring, co-teaching models, language advisors, and communities of practice can promote sustainable instructional improvement.

3. Inclusive Learning Environments

Students in EMI courses often differ greatly in English proficiency, cultural background, and familiarity with academic discourse. Sustainable EMI practices require an inclusive approach that recognizes these differences rather than treating them as deficiencies. Lecturers may allow strategic code-switching to facilitate comprehension, encourage collaborative group learning, and value multilingual resources.

Research shows that when students are encouraged to draw from their first language as a resource, their conceptual learning deepens and their confidence increases. Inclusivity is thus a core dimension of sustainability.

4. Assessment Practices That Reflect EMI Realities

Assessment in EMI courses should evaluate both content understanding and the communicative means students use to express their knowledge. However, decisions about how much weight to assign to language must be carefully calibrated to avoid penalizing students for linguistic development in progress.

Rubrics may include clarity of argument, accuracy of terminology, and coherence of reasoning rather than grammatical perfection. Such assessment focuses on meaningful communication rather than native-like accuracy.

5. Long-Term Policy and Institutional Alignment

Sustainability also requires alignment between classroom practice and university strategy. Clear institutional support—such as language support centers, reduced class sizes, and funding for curriculum redesign—ensures that EMI is not merely a marketing strategy but a pedagogical commitment.

Universities that successfully implement EMI also engage in ongoing evaluation and data-driven policy adjustments. Sustainable EMI grows over time, responding to student needs, national language policy, and global academic shifts.