English as the Language-of-Education Mechanisms in Europe: New Transdisciplinary Approaches in Linguistics
We are delighted to invite your proposals for a contribution to our special issue on the Journal of English-Medium Instruction "New Interdisciplinary Perspectives for ‘Opening Up’ Research on EMI in Higher Education" (submission deadline 16 June 2023).
Information
Abstract
In the past few decades, English-medium instruction (EMI) programmes in higher education institutions in non-Anglophone Europe have dramatically increased by more than 1,000%, with similar exponential growth observed in different parts of the world. We have also witnessed a massive increase in research conducted on EMI. Although this has significantly advanced our understandings, we note that EMI research has – perhaps inevitably – been mostly appropriated by academics with an Applied Linguistics focus. We propose that this hitherto predominantly monodisciplinary approach may have prevented deeper and broader understandings of the causes and consequences of EMI from emerging. Indeed, it is widely acknowledged that EMI is intrinsically embedded in other major restructuring activities in the higher education sector, including internationalization, massification, commodification, competition, etc., all of which are studied by scholars in fields and disciplines beyond Applied Linguistics.
This proposed JEMI special issue wishes to ‘open up’ research by bringing together researchers from a wider range of fields and disciplines with topical, theoretical and methodological expertise in areas that directly or indirectly impact on EMI in higher education. By including articles that adopt an interdisciplinary approach, we aim to ‘open up’ the field of EMI in the hope that this will shed new light on longstanding questions while also benefiting other fields and raising awareness of EMI. We especially welcome contributions authored jointly by Applied Linguists and scholars in fields such as (but not limited to) Higher Education Studies, Public Administration, Policy Studies, Political Science, Educational Governance, Sociology of Education, Science Education, etc.
The guest editors invite papers that explore one or more of the questions below:
What areas have been obscured in the field of EMI to date through lack of interdisciplinary approaches?
How might interdisciplinary research shed new light on ongoing questions in EMI and vice versa in other fields and disciplines?
How might interdisciplinarity be conceptualised in EMI research, and what are its opportunities?
What new areas of research are opened up in EMI and other fields through interdisciplinarity?
How does our disciplinary and ideological background shape the questions we ask, the answers we find, and the attitudes we have towards EMI?
How might research, theory, policy and practice be ‘opened up’ through head-on discussions about ideological, epistemological and ontological assumptions that are often left tacit?
Submission
Considering the main theme of the special issue, i.e., opening up research, we welcome fulllength papers (both conceptual and empirical) as well as other types of contributions such as short reports, book reviews or research notes. All proposals need to focus on EMI with an interdisciplinary approach, clearly identifying the disciplines that are being brought into play and the new insights this will yield.
Please send your proposal (length: maximum 300 words, not including references) along with the bios of the authors to our email address by 16 June 2023:
Please direct any questions you may have to the same email address.
Please review the timeline carefully prior to submitting your proposals.
Important dates
Deadline for proposal submission: 16 June 2023
First full manuscript drafts due: 15 December 2023
Revised manuscripts due: 31 May 2024
Final manuscripts due to guest editors: 15 September 2024
Editors
Anna Kristina Hultgren, Dogan Yuksel, Beatrice Zuaro, Marion Nao & Peter Wingrove
The Open University, Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies, UK