Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Accommodation Strategies Employed by Non-native English-Mediated Instruction (EMI) Teachers

  • Regular Article
  • Published:
The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The goal of this study was to explore English instructors’ application of accommodation strategies under English-Mediated Instruction (EMI) in English as a lingua franca context of higher education in Taiwan. English instructors’ verbal discourses with regard to various types of strategies during instruction were documented and examined. The presented results were triangulated in terms of quantitative and qualitative analyses. Data were gathered from a university in southern Taiwan, which included approximately 627 min of audio-recordings of five courses by five non-native teachers in its IMBA program. The collected data were analyzed through the use of frequency, pragmatic functions, display of lexicon and syntax, and the most common clusters. Corpora and interviews were chosen to be the primary analytic tools. Six effective accommodation strategies were identified via quantitative analysis, including introducing, defining, listing, eliciting, giving examples, and emphasizing. The selection of the accommodation strategies was influenced by the following situations: (1) level of content difficulty, (2) students’ language proficiency, (3) student feedback, and (4) finding appropriate language. Finally, top-ten language clusters frequently produced by the EMI instructors were found to serve the purposes of eliciting and defining concepts. Possible pedagogical implications are also discussed in the last section.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., KhosraviNik, M., Krzyzanowski, M., McEnery, T., & Wodak, R. (2008). A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. Discourse Society, 19(3), 273–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Björkman, B. (2010). Spoken Lingua Franca English at a Swedish Technical University. Stockholm, Sweden: Department of English, Stockholm University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Björkman, B. (2011). Pragmatic strategies in English as an academic lingua franca: Ways of achieving communicative effectiveness. Journal of Pragmatic, 43(4), 950–964.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cogo, A. (2009). Accommodating differences in ELF conversations: A study of pragmatic strategies. In A. Mauranen & E. Ranta (Eds.), English as a lingua franca: Studies and findings (pp. 254–270). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cogo, A. (2010). Strategic use and perceptions of English as a lingua franca. Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 46(3), 295–312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Csomay, E. (2013). Lexical bundles in discourse structure: A corpus-based study of classroom discourse. Applied Linguistics, 34(3), 369–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dafouz Milne, E., & Sánchez García, D. (2013). ‘Does everybody understand?’ Teacher questions across disciplines in English-mediated university lectures: An exploratory study. Language Value, 5(1), 129–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giles, H. (1973). Accent mobility: A model and some data. Anthropological Linguistics, 15(2), 87–105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giles, H., & Clair, R. N. S. (1979). Language and Social Psychology. Oxford: B. Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guido, M. G. (2012). ELF authentication and accommodation strategies in crosscultural immigration encounters. Journal of English as Lingua Franca, 1(2), 219–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • He, D., & Li, D. (2009). Language attitudes and linguistic features in the ‘China English’ debate. World Englishes, 28(1), 70–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • House, J. (2002). Developing pragmatic competence in English as a lingua franca. In K. Knapp & C. Meierkord (Eds.), Lingua franca Communication (pp. 246–267). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyland, K. (2008). Academic clusters: Text patterning in published and postgraduate writing. International Journal of Applied Linguistic, 18(1), 41–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language: New models, new norms, new goals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkpatrick, A., & Zhichang, X. (2002). Chinese pragmatic norms and China English. World Englishes, 21(2), 269–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knapp, A. (2011). Using English as a lingua franca for (mis-)managing conflict in an international university context: An example from a course in engineering. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(4), 978–990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kubota, R., & Ward, L. (2000). Exploring linguistic diversity through world Englishes. The English Journal, 89(6), 80–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1975). A communicative grammar of English. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauranean, A. (2009). Chunking ELF: Expressions for managing interaction. Intercultural Pragmatics, 6(2), 217–233.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauranen, A. (2003). The corpus of English as a Lingua Franca in academic settings. TESOL Quarterly, 37(3), 513–527.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mauranen, A. (2006). Signaling and preventing misunderstanding in English as a lingua franca. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 177, 123–150.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauranen, A. (2007). Hybrid voices: English as the lingua franca of academics. In K. Flottum (Ed.), Language and discipline perspectives on academic discourse (pp. 244–259). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauranen, A. (2010a). Features of English as a lingua franca in academia. Helsinki English Studies, 6, 6–28. Retrieved from http://blogs.helsinki.fi/hes-eng/files/2010/12/Mauranen_HES_Vol6.pdf.

  • Mauranen, A. (2010b). Discourse reflexivity: A discourse universal? The case of ELF. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 9(2), 13–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Education (MOE), Taiwan. (2001). White paper on higher education. MOE Taipei, Taiwan. Retrieved from http://www.doc88.com/p-706892185844.html.

  • Nesi, H., & Basturkmen, H. (2006). Lexical bundles and discourse signaling in academic lectures. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 11(3), 283–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nickerson, C. (2005). English as a lingua franca in international business contexts. English for Specific Purposes, 24, 267–380.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnell, M. (2008). The UAM CorpusTool: Software for corpus annotation and exploration. http://arantxa.ii.uam.es/~modonnel/.

  • Qiong, H. X. (2004). Why China English should stand alongside British, American, and the other ‘World Englishes’. English Today, 20(2), 26–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, M. (2008). WordSmith tools version 5. Liverpool: Lexical Analysis Software.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seidlhofer, B. (2001). Closing a conceptual gap: The case for a description of English as a lingua franca. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 133–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smit, U. (2010). Conceptualizing English as a lingua franca (ELF) as a tertiary classroom language. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 39, 59–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yorkey, R. C. (1982). Study Skills for Students of English. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, ROC

    Yi-Rung Tsai & Wenli Tsou

Authors
  1. Yi-Rung Tsai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wenli Tsou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wenli Tsou.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tsai, YR., Tsou, W. Accommodation Strategies Employed by Non-native English-Mediated Instruction (EMI) Teachers. Asia-Pacific Edu Res 24, 399–407 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-014-0192-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-014-0192-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation