Book Reviews
English-Medium Instruction in
Japanese Higher Education: Policy,Challenges, and Outcomes
Bradford, Annette & Brown, Howard (Eds.). (2017).
Multilingual Matters (300 pp.). ISBN: 978-1-78309-894-1:
Price: 15,984 yen
Reviewed by Sayaka Sugimoto
Waseda University
The use of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) is a rapidly growing trendthat is shaping the present and future of higher education in non-Englishspeaking countries. EMI refers to “the use of the English language to teachacademic subjects (other than English itself ) in countries or jurisdictions inwhich the majority of the population’s first language is not English” (Dearden,2015, p. 2). As of 2014, 52 out of 55 non-English-speaking countries have alreadyemployed EMI in higher education, and the number of EMI courses offered inuniversities in the majority of these countries is expected to increase (Dearden,2015). Japan has also seen a steady increase in EMI courses at both the graduate
and undergraduate levels. According to a report by the Ministry of Education,Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, 309 out of the 777 universities inJapan offered undergraduate-level EMI courses and 222 provided graduate-level
EMI courses in 2017 (MEXT, 2019). Against this backdrop, a number of books
have been published on the topic, addressing a wide range of challenges andopportunities that EMI has brought to higher education. Many of these books
focus on specific aspects of EMI (e.g., language policies) and use compilations of177

Sugimotocase studies from many countries, typically devoting one or two chapters to eachcountry (e.g., Fenton-Smith & Humphreys, 2018; Jenkins & Mauranen, 2019).
English-Medium Instruction in Japanese Higher Education: Policy, Challenges,and Outcomes is unique in that it focuses exclusively on EMI in Japanese highereducation. In doing so, it seeks to enable higher education practitioners andpolicymakers to “clearly understand why EMI policies are in place, how EMI
is being enacted, what challenges exist and how they have been overcome, andwhat the impacts of EMI may be” (Bradford & Brown, 2017, pp. xix) in Japanese
university contexts. The book’s editors Annette Bradford and Howard Brown,
who are recognized for their research on EMI in Japan, achieve these objectives
by compiling chapters written by researchers and practitioners who have had
direct experience of EMI in Japanese universities through teaching, research,
curriculum design, program coordination, or policy planning. Written with
sufficient detail and clarity, this book serves as a timely and valuable resource forgaining a deep understanding of the background to and present state of EMI in
Japanese universities and for comprehending the nature of the challenges thatEMI stakeholders, such as administrators, faculty members, and students, faceon a daily basis.
Owing to its exclusive focus on Japan, the book enables its readers to gain
an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of the social backgrounds,implementation processes, and stakeholder experiences of EMI in universities
in the country. The book comprises 18 chapters thematically organized into sixsections. The first section addresses the social background and driving forcesof EMI in Japan. In order to provide a solid knowledge base for subsequent
chapters, Bradford and Brown used the ROAD-MAPPING theoreticalframework (Dafouz & Smit, 2014), which is the first conceptual framework
in EMI literature for describing and analyzing EMI in a specific context. By
applying the framework’s six dimensions (roles of English, academic disciplines,
language management, agents, practice and processes, and internationalizationand glocalization), Bradford and Brown systematically described the current
state of EMI in Japanese universities. Next, Hashimoto and Mulvey review pastand present policies, respectively, aimed at promoting implementations of EMI
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in Japanese universities. This section provides readers with sufficient backgroundinformation for understanding why and how EMI has become prevalent inJapan.
The second section focuses on curriculum development, introducing
several case studies to exemplify the ways in which EMI programs have beendeveloped. Yamamoto and Ishikura, for instance, describe how they designed
and directed an English-only undergraduate program in Osaka University
successfully, managing the staffing issues and structural dilemmas caused by thedifferent academic calendars of domestic and international students. The third
section reports the diverse challenges that have emerged at the institutional
and administrative levels during EMI implementation. For example, based on
his experience as Director of an EMI program, Poole argues that macro-levelpolicy decisions to implement EMI and promote internationalization are inconflict with micro-level bureaucratic and administrative practices, and thisconflict adversely affects the implementation of EMI. These two sections provide
valuable insights from insiders that one can rarely gain from other information
sources (e.g., journal articles).
The fourth section focuses on the experiences of students and instructors
in EMI classes, and the fifth section introduces the specific EMI practices ofthree universities, along with practical suggestions for further improvement.
For instance, Iyobe and Li explore the success factors of EMI programs on
the basis of the data gathered from a small public university. They conclude
that student exposure to EMI, collaboration between content and language
specialists, and a curriculum that integrates language and content instruction
are important factors for establishing a successful EMI program. Finally, thelast section discusses the future prospects of EMI in Japan. In the final chapter,
Bradford and Brown draw parallels between the current trend of EMI andthe IT revolution in higher education in the 1990s. Driven by the economiccrisis of the 1990s and the demand for new type of graduates with a new set of
information technology (IT) skills, universities rapidly attempted to incorporate
IT into their educational curricula and facilities. However, after experiencing
backlashes at the organizational and practice levels, many universities failed to179

Sugimotofully integrate IT education into their curricula. Bradford and Brown argue that
if Japanese universities truly aim to internationalize their learning environments
through EMI implementation, they need to embrace the necessary changes,
develop long-term strategies, and fully integrate EMI into their educationalcurricula. The authors identify multiple examples of both the backlash against(i.e., sections three and four) and the potential of EMI (i.e., sections two andfive) in this book, and their arguments are clear and persuasive.
Beyond its focus and depth of understanding, the book has multiple
strengths that are worth emphasizing. First, it sheds light on the experiences ofinternational students – an important, yet understudied area of the EMI researchthat has been conducted so far in Japan and overseas. As explained in Chapter
2, section 1, the increase in the number of international students is expected
to contribute to further internationalization of universities and to greater
competition in the globalized higher education market. Attracting international
students is, therefore, one of the major reasons why universities have introduced
EMI. However, as discussed in Chapter 7, section 3, the admission policies andprocedures of EMI programs are creating barriers to the entry of international
students. Even after admission, students experience linguistic, pedagogical, andadministrative challenges, but their needs for additional support to manage thesechallenges often remain unnoticed, as discussed in Chapters 10 and 16. These
are serious problems that hinder universities from achieving one of the primaryobjectives of EMI, that is, attracting international students for promotinginternationalization. However the existing literature has rarely examined such
issues (Macaro et al., 2018). Similarly, the book shares the experience of aforeign-born language instructor who had to transition from language teaching
to content teaching via EMI (Chapter 12). Owing to the lack of qualified EMI
instructors, Japanese universities often ask language instructors to teach EMI
courses, which raises important questions at both the theoretical and practicallevels, such as who should teach EMI courses and what backgrounds andcompetencies EMI instructors should have. We do not yet have the answers
to these questions owing to the paucity of literature (Macaro, 2018). Similar
knowledge gaps exist in the areas of availability of faculty training programs and180

English-Medium Instruction in Japanese Higher Education, OnCUE 14(1), pages 177-183

in-depth analyses of psychological burdens that faculty experience, and they areaddressed in Chapter 15, section 5, and Chapter 13, section 4, respectively. Thisbook not only contributes to filling those knowledge gaps, but also gives EMI
practitioners insights into the issues they are likely to encounter when organizing
or running EMI courses.
In terms of the book’s limitations, readers would have benefited from theinclusion of chapters that provide quantitative overviews of EMI in universities
in Japan. The research cited in this book is primarily qualitative (e.g., participant
observations, autoethnography, and case studies) and involves relatively small
numbers of participants (N < 40). The choices of methodology are appropriate
for the purposes of each chapter, and the insights generated from them areundoubtedly valuable. However, the inclusion of several chapters that either
integrate quantitative data or report on quantitative studies – such as a chapterthat reports the results of a large-scale survey on the prevalence of EMI in
Japanese higher education (Brown, 2017; MEXT, 2019) – would have helped
readers to assess the extent to which the issues reported in this book can beapplied to other educational institutions in Japan.
In addition, the inclusion of chapters addressing either the general experienceof domestic students or their opinions toward EMI would have reinforced thecomprehensiveness of the book. Although Chapters 9, 10, and 11 in section 4
focus on student experiences, Chapter 9 focuses on international students, andChapters 10 and 11 analyze specific aspects of EMI students: gender (Chapter10) and students’ opinions of Asian varieties of English in their EMI classes(Chapter 11). Because many overseas studies have addressed student experiences,
especially the challenges they experience in their EMI classes owing to theirlimited English proficiency (Macaro et al., 2018), some readers may have beeninterested in learning how Japanese students in general experience and evaluate
EMI classes. As mentioned earlier, informing EMI practitioners about thecommon challenges that emerge through EMI implementation is one of the
primary objectives of the book, and the inclusion of chapters addressing Japanese
students’ experiences, attitudes, and opinions toward EMI would have helped toaccomplish this objective.
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Nevertheless, the coverage of this book is still the most comprehensive
among similar works. It not only critically examines the current state of EMI inJapan, but also investigates its contextual background. While EMI researchers
appear to have reached an agreement on the definition of EMI (Macaro, 2018),
its applications and subsequent challenges can still vary significantly dependingon the historical and social contexts in which EMI has been implemented. By
addressing these contextual backgrounds, this book attempts to explain in a
persuasive and informative way why EMI has been implemented in the ways it
has been thus far, particularly in Japan. In additiona, thanks to multiple insightsfrom various stakeholders such as researchers, instructors, program coordinators,
and international students, this book succeeds in providing a balanced viewof both the potential and challenges that can exist at multiple levels of EMI
implementation. As such, I recommended this book to those who wish to update
their understanding of the diverse EMI issues faced by Japanese universities.
It will be particularly appreciated by researchers entering this field; instructors
who wish to understand the common challenges of and strategies for EMI
implementation; and academic staff and faculty members who plan to design a
program or curriculum involving EMI.

ReferencesBrown, H. (2017). Current trends in English-medium instruction at universities
in Japan. OnCUE Journal, 10(1), 3–20.
Dafouz, E., & Smit, U. (2014). Towards a dynamic conceptual framework forEnglish-medium education in multilingual university settings. Journal ofApplied Linguistics, 37(3), 397–415.
Dearden, J. (2015). English as a medium of instruction - A growing global
phenomenon. British Council. https://www.britishcouncil.es/sites/default/
files/british_council_english_as_a_medium_of_instruction.pdf
Frenton-Smith, B., Humphreys, P., & Walkinshaw, I. (Eds.). (2018). English
medium instruction in higher education in Asia-Pacific: From policy topedagogy. Springer.
Jenkins, J., & Mauranen, A. (2019). Linguistic diversity on the EMI campus:182

English-Medium Instruction in Japanese Higher Education, OnCUE 14(1), pages 177-183

Insider accounts of the use of English and other languages in universities
within Asia, Australasia, and Europe. Routledge.
Macaro, E. (2018). English medium instruction. Oxford University Press.
Macaro, E., Curle, S., Pun, J., An, J., & Dearden, J. (2018). A systematic reviewof English medium instruction in higher education. Language Teaching,51(1), 36–76.
MEXT. (2019). Heisei 28-nendo no daigaku ni okeru kyōiku naiyō-tō
no kaikaku jōkyō ni tsuite (gaiyō) [The state of educational reform inuniversities in 2016 (overview)]. https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/koutou/
daigaku/04052801/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2019/05/28/1417336_001.pdf
Sugimoto, S. (2016). Eigo de senmon kamoku o oshieru: Kadai to tenbō[Teaching academic subjects in English: Challenges and opportunities].
Aoyama Standard Journal, 11, 317–340.

Author Bio

Sayaka Sugimoto is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences
at Waseda University. Her research focuses on English-medium instruction inuniversities in Japan. She can be reached at sayakasugimoto@gmail.com
Received: December 1, 2020
Accepted: February 4, 2021

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