Reflection Paper

A Reflection on Whether EMI is a
Practical Objective

Anthony C. Torbert
Kobe Gakuin University
At the 2018 CUE Conference, two speakers touched on English-medium
instruction (EMI), which has been a trending topic in Japanese education in thepast decade (Brown, 2018). The plenary speaker, Kay Irie, gave a talk entitled“Innovation behind the scenes: Challenges and opportunities for universities inJapan,” which focused on the challenges her department faced when introducing
a new EMI curriculum. In contrast, in a presentation called “Supporting theTransition from EFL to EMI,” Howard Brown discussed what he considered thefailures of many Japanese EMI programs to date. The differences in perspectives
were interesting, and I found myself wondering how my experiences in Japanese
universities related to what they described, and whether it is even possible to havea successful EMI program, given the relatively low levels of English proficiency
among Japanese university students.
The term English-medium instruction can be a bit vague as there are shifting
perceptions of what it means. Brown (2015) uses the Japanese Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s (MEXT) definition
which refers to virtually any class taught in English that does not have thespecific objective of teaching the English language itself. This is unlike Content
and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and another term, Content-Based
Instruction (CBI), which have primary goals of teaching language through theuse of content. These methods rely on authentic (and interesting) materials;
however, there is an element of level-specific scaffolding (O’Neill, 2017), unlike atypical EMI approach. The idea of CBI is not limited to just English instruction,
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and teachers in other countries have found it to be effective (Douglas, 2017).
Two more terms to add to this list of abbreviations are English for SpecificPurposes (ESP) and the perhaps more common English for Academic Purposes(EAP). The former is a general description of classes that target the language of
certain professions, such as aviation, medicine, or business. The latter is what
has become common in many universities in non-English speaking countries,
as these institutions start to focus on preparing students for study in an all (ormostly) English-language environment. While Irie suggested the need for a
progression from EAP to CLIL to EMI, Brown suggested that EMI students
needed simultaneous EAP support in order to be successful. It is worth notingthat many Japanese universities are now accepting scores from the Test of English
for Academic Purposes (TEAP) test, as it includes listening, speaking, andreading components that aim to evaluate skills that students may need should
they join one of the newer programs with an EMI or CLIL focus.
Brown was quite critical of the current direction of many EMI programs inJapan. He said, and I have noticed this as well, that any program in Japan thatproclaims itself to be both content-based and in English gets a stamp approval
as an EMI course by MEXT. This “approval” allows the university to tick certain
boxes when reporting its curricula, which furthermore allows the university
to receive government support (this is true for private universities as well).
However, this is self-assessed, and it is up to the instructor to make the decision.
I have been approached by staff asking me to include a line in Japanese in
my published syllabus that my Western Cultures class is taught in English only.
One concern I have is that, given the mixed level of students, I have found thatperhaps just 10-20% can follow the content as delivered, and another 80%
need varying levels of support, such as writing vocabulary on the board andexplaining content in different ways. This is not so surprising, as the classes havea mix of students from different faculties, some of which typically score higher
on standardized English exams than others. Also in the class are a number ofinternational students who are often quite capable of handling the content
without much scaffolding. Most of these students are actually multi-lingualand a bit older than my first- and second-year Japanese students, and there is211Torbert

an argument to be made that successful EMI courses in Japan need to focus on
more mature and experienced students.
Brown suggested it is necessary to have a reading speed of about 200 words
per minute, which would allow students to finish an article in 5 minutes’ time.
Regarding content, the volume of what Japanese students are asked to handle inJapanese universities is only a fraction of what they would be burdened with ina true EMI situation, such as in an overseas university or in a domestic programwith a large number of native English speakers and returnees. Brown (2015)
reported that the typical length of an EAP text to be perhaps a fourth of what an
EMI text would require, and without boosting the students reading speed theywould be unlikely to successfully complete an assignment in a reasonable amountof time. I have seen this myself, where relatively high-level freshmen in a general
English class at a ‘foreign language’ university take 20 minutes to read a single
New York Times business trends article of 1,000 words, all the while stopping tocheck vocabulary in their electronic dictionary. At such a speed it is impracticalto have such activities as they detract too much from the limited discussion timein class. Instead I will give these reading assignments as homework, as will mostof many of my colleagues. I do know of Japanese instructors who will spend an
entire class providing a line-by-line translation of such a text, however, there is no
expectation that such as class would be classified as EMI.
This lack of reading fluency is perhaps the biggest obstacle students face when
wanting to be successful in EMI classes, be they in Japan or overseas. For decades
the focus when reading English in Japanese classes was to translate literature, andthese exercises were intensive rather than extensive. In some of my classes, I have
tried to inspire students to read more graded materials outside of class, but manyare lacking the motivation to read more than the minimum I require.
In Irie’s description of the process of setting up a new faculty at Gakushuin
University, she discussed how the university originally had hopes of recruiting
first-year students with high levels of English. She noted that once the exams
had been administered, the incoming classes were not as proficient at English as
had been anticipated, and the gap between CLIL and EMI classes was too great.
Brown (2018) notes that all but the highest tier universities may have trouble212Whether EMI is a Practical Objective, OCJSI 1, pages 210-217

recruiting highly proficient students ready to join EMI programs. In order tomake the program successful, Irie said they needed 200 students per year, but
given the actual English ability she realized there was a need to adjust entry
requirements and create bridge courses to prepare their students for overseas
study.
A number of standardized test scores are now being accepted by Japanese
universities as a part of their English language entrance requirements, but
Japanese public high schools in general only focus on the EIKEN and GTEC.
Scores from IELTS and TOEFL are also being accepted; however, preparationis left to cram schools. I have spoken to Japanese high school teachers of English,
and they readily admit that the amount of reading and writing practice students
get in high school is generally insufficient to get the students up to a level thatwould qualify them for a full-on EMI program or overseas university study.
Once out of university, the TOEIC test becomes the focus, which is the test thatover 2,500 Japanese companies use for setting proficiency goals ( Japan Today,2013).
The truth of the matter is that very few Japanese high school students areanywhere near the required level to succeed in a local program where subject
matter is taught only in English (sometimes referred to as an overseas EMI
program). Returnees, depending on their experiences, may be able to do well insuch programs, but the requirements are quite high. Many American university
undergraduate programs require a minimum TOEFL iBT score of 70 to 80, andelite institutions 100 (Muniz, 2017). The average Japanese TOEFL taker scores
just 71, whereas Chinese speakers average a score of 79, and at the highest range
are the Dutch who average 100 (ETS, 2017). The indigenous exam Eiken ismore affordable than the TOEFL, and the test sites are country-wide. Students
may think they are doing well by passing level 2 by the end of high school, but
although this is the target of MEXT, the reality is even level pre-1 requires only
a short writing sample, and the grading rubric is designed to pass a majority ofthe test takers.
Due to these deficiencies, overseas universities understand that in order
to attract Japanese students, they need to provide EAP and ESL preparatory
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programs that allow students to come to their institution despite lacking thenecessary standardized TOEFL or IELTS test scores. This experience canbe good for the students, as they can make great strides when immersed in alanguage, but it is not a given that after 12-24 weeks of study they will be able tohandle university-level classes.
It is worthwhile asking the question why Japanese universities are being
encouraged to offer EMI classes in the first place, given the small number ofstudents who are actually preparing for them. Universities rely on tuition fromstudents, and as Irie mentioned, if enough students are not qualifying, thenthe entrance requirements will be relaxed. English-medium instruction allows
Japanese universities to appeal to international students who do not speak or readJapanese (Brown & Bradford, 2017; Susser, 2017), but it is likely that importinginternational scholarship-dependent students and adding in a few returnees will
not provide enough of a financial base for continuing a large-scale EMI program.
Since it is unlikely a significant number of high-proficiency Japanese students
will be coming out of the high schools anytime soon, universities need to consider
how these programs will fare in the future. The internationalization of businesses
and shift by some high-profile companies such as Rakuten and Fast Retailing tohave meetings in English does make the news and might provide motivation forstudents, but it is still a tiny fraction of the total number of companies in Japan(Tanaka, 2018). Some companies are using TOEIC scores when screening job
applications, as well as providing incentives for current employees to do improvetheir scores, though such scores alone are no guarantee of fluency (Kansai Gaidai
Alumni News, 2015; Murai, 2016). Some Japanese I know have told me theircompanies have goals and incentives, and I know teachers who do TOEIC
lessons on site at companies in order to prepare employees who may be slated
to go overseas, yet how much companies weigh the value of good English skills
when hiring new graduates is still not clear and is an area ripe for research. It is
logical that students who successfully complete an EMI program will probably
be ready to do well in the international arena, but the key is that they not lose
their motivation due to difficulty and drop out.
Given the challenges most non-native speakers of English face, one solution
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some EMI degree programs use is a student-centered methodology to increase
involvement (Zhang, Zheng, Zhang, & Zhang, 2019); however, as Susser (2017)
notes, these programs still end up relying on a high percentage of lectures, whichis to the detriment of the students and hurts retention. Brown concluded his
presentation with a warning that even motivated students drop out of EMI
programs when faced with the harsh reality that their language skills are notgood enough, and if such programs are going to succeed, more will need toprovide ongoing support. To me this makes sense, although I feel that the EMI
drive is an impractical objective handed down to universities by a government
eager to boost the image of Japan’s universities quickly. A more logical approach
would be to provide much more time for English study in the elementary andjunior high school, and then focus on CLIL in high school and university. As ateacher I enjoy teaching subject matter I am interested in, and I think this is true
for many others. A large number of English language instructors I know withmaster’s degrees in TESOL earned them after receiving a bachelor’s in an entirely
different subject. Brown acknowledged as much but noted in his talk that finding
native English-speaking lecturers who are up to date in their respective fields andable to adjust to the Japanese university culture is challenging. I believe a more
likely solution is to hire Japanese who have very high levels of English and goodteaching skills, but finding people with just the right skill set is not easy. Oncefound, however, these teachers may be highly motivated, as their passion may
lie in history, art, the environment or business. Giving them the opportunity toteach Japanese university students such subject matter in English, albeit withsome CLIL or CBI scaffolding, is most likely the best approach for all.

References

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Brown, H. (2018). English-medium instruction in Japanese universities:
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guarantee of success. Retrieved from https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/required-or-not-english-knowledge-no-guarantee-ofsuccessKansai Gaidai Alumni News. (2015, December 9). Toikku 900-ten de shushoku
tenshoku nenshu de katsu! Kachi wa cho zetsudai! [Win a job, change ofjob, or annual income with TOEIC 900 points! The value is tremendous!].
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O’Neill, T. (2017). Change in Japanese tertiary education: Implementing content
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Medium Instruction (EMI) calculus course. Canadian Social Science, 15(4),11-14. DOI: 10.3968/11043

Author bio

Anthony C. Torbert has been a full-time instructor at Kobe Gakuin University
since 1999. He is in the Faculty of Business Administration, where he enjoys teachingbusiness, political, and social content to his students. 3tony@ba.kobegakuin.ac.jp
Received: October 15, 2018
Accepted: October 18, 2019217