申論題

 Instruction:The ability to write from multiple sources is one of the key competences that a graduate student needs to develop to succeed in graduate studies. In this writing test, you are asked to write an academic essay of no more than 800 words to discuss this topic:  English as a medium of instruction in Asian countries.  Extracts of three source texts are provided for you to use in your essay. Provide and support your arguments on the issue by referring to the three source texts. Include in-text references for all sources you cite. This writing task is to evaluate your ability to1) read and accurately integrate source materials 2) paraphrase, summarize, and reference original ideas and 3) synthesize materials across multiple texts and 4) establish your own voice as an author when composing a new text through integrating ideas from the source materials.  The weight for each of the above-mentioned abilities is 25% of the total score.

                                                            Source text extracts

(2) Jiang, L., Zhang, L. J., & May, S. (2019). Implementing English-medium instruction (EMI) in China: teachers' practices and perceptions, and students' learning motivation and needs. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(2), p.1-2, 10.
As English has an established status worldwide as the academic lingua franca, China, instigated by academic internationalisation, has rushed to follow the global trend of teaching in English as the medium of instruction (English-medium instruction; EMI) (Graddol 2006; Wilkinson 2013). In the past decade, EMI has evolved at the tertiary level from being a Chinese-English bilingual teaching experience in well-developed socio-economic areas to being used right across the country. Concomitantly, an English curriculum prioritizing English for specific purposes (ESP) is also promoted based on the argument that it can well prepare students for academic study and professional work (e.g. Wang 2009; Cai 2014). No matter how optimally the original objectives are envisioned, both EMI and ESP in China are nonetheless underachieved in terms of teaching quality and learning achievements. Pressing issues include teachers' insufficient English competence, varied needs of heterogeneous students, dubious quality of learning materials, and a mismatch between what is needed in target academic situations and what is provided by available EMI and ESP programmes (Cai 2015; Wang 2015). 
Our study was conducted to examine how English was practiced and perceived by teachers, and student ESP learning motivation and needs in a university EMI programme in mainland China, all of which is previously underreported. Based on the data, we can make the tentative conclusion that the EMI programme, as the institution's strategic move to promote its educational internationalisation, is far from a full-fledged practice. Teacher emphasis on content and the inadequate English proficiency of the participants have largely shaped the discourse pattern in the classroom. Instruction and communication effectiveness are reached in one way or another via the assistance of pragmatic strategies. Focus on form is not overtly attended to, but has the potential to work in a mutually constitutive and supportive manner with pragmatic strategies. These findings have shed light on how English is used in EMI classroom settings in mainland China. They may provide some insights to researchers who are keen on exploring effective pedagogy through investigating CLIL classroom interaction (e.g. Lo and Macaro 2015).
Admittedly, code-switching to a first language (L1) and written prompts might have helped to eliminate non-understanding, yet meaning construction and transmission in this way depended primarily on written texts on the PPT slides, learners' L1, and reading comprehension skills, rather than developing students' listening and oral skills. Therefore, very few opportunities existed to foster students' ESP skills in the observed EMI classroom in a comprehensive way. If the current purpose of EMI is to fulfil a dual objective of achieving English and content learning at the same time, then China's EMI teachers need not only be equipped with an adequate level of English proficiency but also English teaching skills.