Rahnuma, Naureen and Warin, Jo (2022) Opportunities and constraints: phenomenological insights into students’ experiences of learning through English-medium instruction (EMI) in Bangladeshi higher education. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.
![[thumbnail of 2021rahnumaphd]](https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/text.png)
2021rahnumaphd.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.
Download (3MB)
Abstract
English medium instruction (EMI) is analogous to internationalisation in higher education (HE) today. The present study contributes to a growing body of literature in EMI by focusing on Bangladeshi students’ beliefs and a sociocultural perspective of their identity in a private university in Bangladesh. In examining how Bangladeshi HE students conceptualise learning using English as a second language (ESL), this study employs a qualitative inquiry to explore complex social phenomena, as experienced by students, for a more profound and meaningful understanding. As the current study aims to describe experiences, events, processes or culture from the perspective of HE students at a private university, a hermeneutic phenomenological approach was taken to interpret the students’ overlapping version of reality. The data consisted of eighteen student interviews, six teacher interviews, twenty-one documents, and eight sets of field notes. Findings confirmed that students' view of EMI is construed by the perceived benefits of English in providing enhanced job prospects by creating a global workforce. The findings have important implications for developing explicit language-in-education policies at Bangladeshi higher education institutions (HEIs) conducive to acquiring bilingual language competence. It also has implications for ELT, EAP practitioners, and content teachers to advance the internationalisation agenda in HEIs through the adoption and implementation of EMI through translanguaging practices.