CIELT

Journal Article

Siti Shaliha - 2009120033

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using English as a Medium of Instruction in

The Classroom

The English language has played an important role so far, and its role is becoming

increasingly important in the era of globalization. The growing need for English as a key to

global communication, relations, and information constantly increased and began to cover all

aspects of life. One of the aspects that have covered by English is education. Seeing the great

opportunities for the use of the language, recently many schools and universities have

adopted English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI). This happens not only in ESL but also in

some countries where English is a foreign language for example Indonesia. In some countries

where English is a foreign language the use of EMI is no longer a new phenomenon (Ibrahim,

2001). As the demand of the globalization era, some teachers in EFL classroom have used

EMI to teach the lesson to the students. The implementation of EMI in EFL classroom

context can bring both advantages and disadvantages in the learning process. One of the

advantages of its implementation is students can improve their level of English proficiency

on four English language skills, while the disadvantage is the use of EMI can cause greater

difficulties in understanding the course content and inhibited them from expressing

themselves fluently in the class (Chang, 2010).

In response to that issue, many researches have been conducted to examine the use of

EMI, especially in teaching content-subject in EFL classroom. This issue becomes a

debatable issue until now. It's because there are two different perspectives which agree and

disagree with the implementation of EMI in the classroom.

Some researchers who agree about the implementation of EMI in the classroom try to

support their opinions by showing some advantages of it in their researches. They also bring

some facts to strengthen their arguments that EMI is possible to use in teaching and learning

process and it is effective to be implemented in the classroom. As a research conducted by

Ibrahim (2010) which shown that the use EMI in the classroom can give cognitive advantages

both for teacher and students, motivated teachers and students to learn the language and give

teacher and students more exposure to English and more chances to acquire it. This research

finding proves that the use of EMI is effective to be implemented in the classroom.

CIELT

Journal Article

Siti Shaliha - 2009120033

Related to those findings, another research conducted by Chang (2010) in Taiwan that

also shown the advantages by using EMI in the classroom. He found that teaching subject-

course in English can promote students’ interest and motivation in learning the English

language, and hence improve their English proficiency. In his research also stated that

students who receive EMI in their classroom tended to show a more positive learning attitude

(Wu, 2006). Haagen-Schützenhöfer, C. & Mathelitsch, L (n. d) also mentioned in their

research that the instruction of subject-content such Physics through the medium of a foreign

language often increases students’ motivation. They added that students find the subject

much more interesting when the instruction given in English.

As this paper has been discussed before that the use of EMI also brings disadvantages

in teaching in learning process. They said that the use of EMI can make students feel difficult

in understanding the content of the lesson. As Chang (2010) stated in his research that the use

of EMI can cause greater difficulties in understanding the course content and inhibited them

from expressing themselves fluently in the class. He also added that the use of EMI might be

helpful in improving students receive skills but it did not help them in comprehending

subject-content. Hsieh and Kang (2007) and Wu (2006) reported similar results in their

researches.

Another research conducted by Ocampo (n.d) also said that the use of English as a

medium of instruction possess double difficulty for the students – that of learning and

understanding English and learning and understanding the science and math concepts which

are being taught. In EFL classroom context there are also some problems that might be the

reasons why some researchers do not agree about the implementation of EMI such as the

dilemma between ‘instruction’ and ‘English’, the unsupportive environment in acquiring

English in EFL classroom, the general lack of English proficiency among students and

teachers, the ‘context-reduced’ nature of classroom communication, and the limited of

classroom discourse (Ibrahim, 2001).

Given the possible advantages and disadvantages of EMI implementation above, we

can conclude that there are some advantages and disadvantages in using EMI in the

classroom. The advantages are students can improve their English level of proficiency and

more motivated in learning, while the disadvantages are students will be found some

CIELT

Journal Article

Siti Shaliha - 2009120033

difficulties in understanding the lesson. Hence, to help students in understanding the lesson it

will be better if the teachers use the bilingual approach to give the instruction to the students.

It means that the use of English is still dominant in the classroom but there are certain

situation when the teachers have to switch the language into their students’ mother tongue,

for example when the teacher explain about the content. It will be more helpful for the

students to understand the content. As Nation (2001) stated that mother L1 has a small but

important role to communicate meaning and content. Mother tongue can bring some

advantages to the students’ learning process in the EFL classroom, especially when they learn

about subject-content. Therefore, mother tongue cannot be avoided in L2 classroom since it

can bring some benefits to the classroom, especially with beginners (Willis and Willis, 2007).

CIELT

Journal Article

Siti Shaliha - 2009120033

References:

Chang. (2010). English-medium instruction for subject courses in tertiary education:

Reactions from Taiwanese undergraduate students. Taiwan International ESP Journal,

2 (1), 55-84. Retrieved on April 29, 2012 from

http://www.tespa.org.tw/papers/02/03%20English-medium%20instruction%20for

%20subject%20courses%20in%20tertiary%20education-Reactions%20from

%20Taiwanese%20undergraduate%20students_Yu-Ying%20Chang.PDF

Coleman. (n.d). Indonesia’s ‘international standard schools’: What are they for?.

Academia.edu. Retrieved on April 29, 2012 from

http://leeds.academia.edu/HywelColeman/Papers/721002/Indonesias_International_St

andard_Schools_What_are_they_for

Farrugia. (2003). The use of English as medium of instruction in Maltese mathematics

classroom: Continuing the debate. Journal of Maltese Education Research, 1 (2), 1-14.

Retrieved on April 29, 2012 from

http://www.um.edu.mt/educ/about/publications/mrer/files/JMERN1I2P1.pdf

Haagen-Schützenhöfer, C. & Mathelitsch, L. (n. d). English as a medium of instruction in

science-teaching. Retrieved on April 30, 2012 from

http://www.fisica.uniud.it/girepseminar2001/CS06/HAAGEN_03_FINAL.pdf

Robertson & Nunn. 2006. English second language acquisition in the Asian context. Asian

EFL journal press: Seoul

Samuelson & Freedman. (2010). Language policy, multilingual education, and power in

Rwanda. Lang Policy, 9, 191-215. Retrieved on April 29, 2012 from

http://gse.berkeley.edu/faculty/swfreedman/10samuelson_freedman.pdf