English Medium Instruction in South Korea : Focusing on Language in School and University Classrooms

Abstract

Adding to the growing body of research on English Medium Instruction (EMI), this book focuses on the language support systems currently used by EMI mathematics and social science schoolteachers and university lecturers in South Korea.

While EMI is an instructional field, there is a gap in the knowledge of how teachers and lecturers integrate English language-specific practices within their curriculum. Drawing on findings from an observational and interview-based case study at secondary and tertiary levels in South Korea, the research outlines differing planned teaching practices and illustrates EMI classroom interaction, language-related episodes (LREs) in this interaction, and vocabulary materials developed by EMI teachers and lecturers. Hong and Basturkmen discuss how they assessed the students’ learning from LREs in classroom interaction and the results from these findings, which illustrate practical advice and guidelines for integrating a focus on language into the discipline of teaching. The volume also offers several application tasks, including two reflection-on-practice projects, which the reader can try out by using the procedures developed in the case study.

This is the first major book-length examination of EMI in the South Korean context and presents a useful resource for EMI teachers, lecturers, and educators – in South Korea and globally – who are looking to develop their methodology for language, including practical suggestions about how to seamlessly incorporate the learning of disciplinary vocabulary and forms of expression using EMI.