TEACHING AND LEARNING IN ENGLISH IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Higher education instruction in English in non-English speaking countries has become a reality in several countries and contexts. This policy towards the adoption of English as language of medium of instruction (EMI) has led to a situation in which students are faced with the need of coping with learning new content in a language different from their mother tongue and teaching staffs need to deliver their courses in English, which is not their first language either in many cases. The present review article focuses at the studies concerning EMI in higher education which report the pedagogical strategies employed by the teaching staff and students to cope with the context investigated. Studies were acquired via ‘Web of Knowledge’ and the inclusion criteria was that they dealt with EMI in higher education, did not have language teaching as main focus and reported pedagogical strategies utilized by the teaching staffs and/or the students. 10 articles met all the criteria, afterwards, 17 more were located by consulting the references from the first 10, therefore, 27 studies are analyzed in this review. The results bring a collection and analysis of the 38 different pedagogical strategies employed by the teaching staffs and the 23 by the students identified in the literature. These strategies were divided into inside or outside the classroom categories and specific clusters were formed. The strategies used by teaching staff inside the classroom are categorized as: Language, interaction, checking understanding, and lecture delivery. The strategies used by the teaching staff outside the classroom were divided into the clusters: Language, checking understanding, interaction and preparation. The pedagogical strategies used by the students inside the classroom were divided into the clusters: Language, lecture attendance behavior, checking understanding and interaction. Lastly, the strategies used by the students outside the classroom were divided into the following clusters: Studying strategies, checking understanding and language.