English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education evokes a range of emotions in students due to its mix of benefits and challenges for learning and future career development. For students whose first language is not English, learning disciplinary knowledge through EMI creates much anxiety and fear, which may potentially hamper their motivation and learning outcomes.
In this talk, I will introduce a recent longitudinal research project conducted in EMI university contexts in China. Drawing on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, I will systematically unpack EMI students’ emotional experiences, and explain how their emotions shape motivation and learning behaviour in academic situations. The talk will be structured in three sections. First, I will introduce the background of the project and its overall design. Then, I will use three empirical studies published from the project to illustrate the role of students’ emotional experiences in their motivation, academic communication, and self-regulated learning. I will also propose a new conceptualisation of motivation in EMI contexts, to capture the dual focus on language and disciplinary learning, respectively. Finally, I will share ideas for future directions related to this topic in EMI research. The talk will be concluded with suggestions for EMI institutional policymaking and curriculum design to support students’ well-being in higher education contexts.
Sihan Zhou is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, where she also completed her DPhil. Her research is situated at the intersection of educational psychology and language teaching and learning. Her work draws on theories in educational psychology to understand language learners’ affect, motivation, and strategic behaviour in emerging contexts such as English-medium instruction (EMI).
She has published a number of research articles in journals such as Language Teaching, System, Language Teaching Research, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, Applied Linguistics Review, ELT Journal, and RELC Journal. She is currently leading a three-year project funded by Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) to explore EMI university students’ longitudinal cross-disciplinary lecture comprehension. Her research has also been previously funded by Swire Charitable Trust and British Council to investigate policy and implementation of EMI in Chinese higher education.
