Summary

Students at some Korean universities are required to take some major courses in English, regardless of major. This is according to EMI or English medium instruction at such universities. In this survey study, data were collected from 500+ undergraduates at a major university in Seoul, to assess their English self-efficacy and readiness for EMI courses. The results show insufficient English skills or weak self-efficacy, especially for some groups. This calls into question the validity of EMI courses, as they have been enacted, as many students are not ready for EMI requirements.

• 
  Methods: Survey data collection, statistical analysis in SAS (hierarchical linear modeling)
• 
  Results: Conference presentation with recommendations; PPT

Details

Students at some Korean universities are required to take some courses in English within their majors, regardless of major; this is in addition to required first-year courses in general English that are required for most students. This policy of required major courses in English is known as EMI, or English medium instruction, and has been common at some higher-ranked universities in Korea.

In this survey study, data were collected from over 500 undergraduates at a major university in Seoul, to assess their English self-efficacy and readiness for EMI courses. Data came from students in many majors in required first-year English courses (for students at a general or intermediate level of English, and for those at a lower or remedial level), elective English courses, and an undergraduate linguistics course. The results show insufficient English skills or efficacy overall, especially for some groups. Those in more advanced or elective English courses (and the linguistics course) tended to have higher self-ratings of their English skills and better self-efficacy. The majority of respondents (intermediate English) had significantly lower skills and efficacy, and lower levels of intrinsic motivation toward English. Certain subgroups had particularly poor self-ratings, efficacy, and motivation issues: those in the lower or remedial level English courses, and foreign students from other Asian nations.

This calls into question the validity of EMI courses, as they have been enacted, as many students are not ready for EMI requirements. They will naturally encounter difficulties taking courses and doing coursework in their major of the courses are taught in English.
The recommendations made based on this study include: modifying EMI requirements, especially for those in certain majors who tend to have lower English skills, and for whom academic English will not be so necessary for their careers; an extended sequence of general English courses for those in the lower or remedial category; stricter English requirements for foreign students; and more support services for students at risk of doing poorly due to weak English skills.

Presentations

• Lee, K. (2022). Language ability and motivation issues in English medium instruction courses in Korea. 9th International Conference on Language, Literature & Linguistics 2022, July 2022, Singapore.
• Lee, K. (2020). Motivation and motivational components among Korean university learners. AsiaTEFL conference, November 2020, Goyang, Korea. PPT

SAS code

FILENAME CSV "/emi.study.ku.st.survey.csv" TERMSTR=LF; 
 
PROC IMPORT DATAFILE=CSV 
		    OUT=ug
		    DBMS=CSV 
		    REPLACE; 
RUN; 
*PROC PRINT DATA=det14; *RUN; 
 
data ug;  
infile '/folders/myshortcuts/d/researchdata/emi.study.ku.st.survey.csv'  truncover firstobs=2 dsd; *dlm=" " n=1300;     
input  sem $ yr $ id $ kurs $ kursniv $ fach $ sex $ nat $natstatus $ l1 $ en_allg en_read en_writ en_list en_speak emi 
M1acINTall M1acINTauto M1acINTable M1acINTsoc M2aeINTall M2aeINTauto M2aeINTable M2aeINTsoc M3enINT M3aeEXT 
M1ac_capable M1ac_belong M1ac_stres M1ac_pax M1ac_friends M1ac_pressure M1ac_competent M1ac_desire M1ac_uptight M1ac_emotclose M1ac_improve M1ac_decidde M1ac_free 
M2ae_capable M2ae_belong M2ae_stress M2ae_pax M2ae_friends M2ae_pressure M2ae_competent M2ae_desire M2ae_uptight M2ae_emotclose M2ae_improve M2ae_decide M2ae_free 
M3en_interest M3en_mygood M3en_oblig M3en_noraison M3en_pleasant M3en_gutforme M3en_haveto M3en_notworth M3en_fun M3en_decide M3en_nochoice M3en_dunno M3en_feelgut M3en_important M3en_fhaveto M3en_notpursue;

proc sort; by natstatus kursniv; 
proc means mean n mean std median ; var en_allg M1acINTall M1acINTauto M1acINTable M1acINTsoc M2aeINTall M2aeINTauto M2aeINTable M2aeINTsoc M3enINT M3aeEXT ;
 by natstatus kursniv; run; 

proc sort; by kursniv;  
proc means mean mean n mean std median  ; var en_allg M1acINTall M1acINTauto M1acINTable M1acINTsoc M2aeINTall M2aeINTauto M2aeINTable M2aeINTsoc M3enINT M3aeEXT ; 
 by kursniv; run;

proc sort; by natstatus; run; 
proc freq data=ug order=data ;  by natstatus; 
 tables en_allg M1acINTall M1acINTauto M1acINTable M1acINTsoc M2aeINTall M2aeINTauto M2aeINTable M2aeINTsoc M3enINT M3aeEXT  / nocol nocum nopercent;  
 run;
 
proc univariate data=ug;
 class natstatus; 
 var en_allg M1acINTall M2aeINTall M3enINT M3aeEXT;
 run;
 
proc glm data=ug ;
 class yr kursniv fach sex nat natstatus l1;
 model en_allg = kursniv emi fach  l1; 
 run;
 
proc glm data=ug ; 
 class yr kursniv fach sex nat natstatus l1; 
 model M1acINTall  = yr kursniv emi fach natstatus l1;  
 run; 
 
proc glm data=ug ; 
 class yr kursniv fach sex nat natstatus l1; 
 model M2aeINTall  = yr kursniv emi fach natstatus l1;  
 run; 
 
proc glm data=ug ; 
 class yr kursniv fach sex nat natstatus l1; 
 model M3enINT  = yr kursniv emi fach natstatus l1;  
 run;  
 
proc glm data=ug ; 
 class yr kursniv fach sex nat natstatus l1; 
 model M3aeEXT  = yr kursniv fach sex emi natstatus l1;  
 run;