Abstract:

A private university in Puebla, Mexico, has been incorporating English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) as a way to promote the use of English in the classrooms, especially in programs in which class materials are created and available (for the most part) in that language, thus requiring students to develop the skills needed to understand readings and podcasts and to express ideas, both orally and in writing, using the specific vocabulary or jargon of a field of knowledge. For some students, taking courses in a different language has been a challenge. And the problems they already faced increased when the EMI courses moved online. This affected not just the students, but faculty as well.

At the beginning of the pandemic, numerous factors hindered the effectiveness of certain courses. A comparison was made between the same courses that were taught face to face before the pandemic and those that were managed remotely since safe distancing measures were enforced. Results show that there were important differences in the overall average of groups in different teaching conditions.

This brief chapter presents the result of a survey about the perceptions of students in online EMI courses during the pandemic, along with the professors’ appreciation of the challenges they faced and the overall benefits of transitioning to a digital format. Apparently, there is a silver lining in the experience since most students seemed to be more willing to participate in class, as the physical distance appeared to provide a sense of safe space in which they could express themselves more freely.

Keywords:

English as a Medium of Instruction, pandemic, remote work.