Just how muddy is it?

: he impact of EMI on academic performance for business administration students

Abstract

Research to date has produced inconclusive findings as to whether English Medium Instruction (EMI) affects content learning and there has been scant research on content learning outcomes in Austria, particularly in the business administration field of Corporate Communication. The present study is a contrastive investigation of learning outcomes for EMI courses in the Corporate Communication degree programme at the University of Applied Sciences for Management and Communication in Vienna. By employing a mixed-method enquiry, this study inquires to what extent the learning outcomes of EMI business students differ from those of students who have received instruction in L1. The study explores the relationship between learning outcomes and teaching practices, while also analysing to what extent practices differ in L1 and EMI (as an L2) instruction. Dafouz and Smit’s ROAD-MAPPING is used as a theoretical framework of analysis and as a point of access. The qualitative study includes interviews with eleven L2 EMI lecturers, while student focus groups provide the student perspective on teaching practices as well as self-reported impressions of their own learning. The contrastive review uses a unique corpus of four lectures conducted both in German and in English and delivered by the same lecturers, which is analysed linguistically to compare the frequency of use of Dalton-Puffer’s Cognitive Discourse Functions (CDFs), questions and other meta-discursive features. This analysis is complemented by the review of a pre-and post-test of content delivered at the start and end of the recorded lectures to capture actual content learnt. Furthermore, an overview of student grades awarded in both the L1 and EMI cohorts is reviewed. Additionally, due to the parallel corpus, a unique contrastive study of natural spoken classroom discourse offers a contribution to the investigations of lecturer discourse. This review of various features is novel and opens up new research avenues reviewing the convergence of the CDF-construct with other linguistic devices. Furthermore, by using the ROAD-MAPPING framework as an aid for the literature review, in first-cycle coding and in the discussion of findings, this study adds to the understanding of its versatility in a phenomenological study. The findings provide new insights for educational policy designers on how to maintain high quality content learning outcomes when introducing EMI courses at the modular and programme level.

Datum der Bewilligung	2023
Originalsprache	Englisch
Gradverleihende Hochschule	Universität Wien