EMI SIG Lecture Series - Samantha Curle

Описание: This recording captures the February lecture in the English-Medium Instruction SIG Lecture Series.

In this talk, Samantha Curle (University of Bath) continues the series’ critical engagement with the prevailing focus on language proficiency in EMI by examining the complex and relationship between language proficiency and academic achievement in EMI contexts.

Abstract:

Research on English Medium Instruction (EMI) has frequently treated academic achievement as a function of learners’ English language proficiency. While this focus has generated important insights, it has also narrowed how success and failure in EMI are conceptualised and measured. This talk argues that achievement in EMI is not simply an individual learner outcome, but a product of assessment design, epistemic access, and institutional structures. Drawing on recent EMI research, I examine how prevailing assessment practices often confound language proficiency with disciplinary knowledge, producing construct-irrelevant variance and inequitable outcomes for multilingual students. The talk then considers how the rapid uptake of Generative Artificial Intelligence further unsettles existing assumptions about achievement, authorship, and assessment validity in EMI contexts. Rather than viewing AI solely as a threat, I propose that it creates an opportunity to rethink what counts as achievement in EMI, and to redesign assessment in ways that foreground learning processes, disciplinary reasoning, and epistemic participation.

Note: only the presentation itself was recorded, not the Q&A afterwards. Several participants suggested relevant sources during the Q&A, these can be found below:

Inbar-Lourie, O. (2022). EMI programs and formative assessment: Implications for the assessment literacy of content lecturers. Journal of English-Medium Instruction, 1(2), 204-231.

Trenkic, D., & Warmington, M. (2019). Language and literacy skills of home and international university students: How different are they, and does it matter?. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22(2), 349-365.

Yuksel, D., & Altay, M. (2024). Perspectives of business stakeholders about EMI in Turkiye. Journal of English-Medium Instruction, 3(1), 48-67.