Students’ attitudes and perceptions towards three EMI courses in mainland China

HEIs (Higher education institutions) in mainland China are making enormous efforts to implement internationalization. As a result, EMI (English-medium instruction) courses are growing rapidly in number and popularity while relevant research is still insufficient in comparison to European countries. Besides, although much existing research has explored students’ beliefs and attitudes towards EMI, little is known on whether their beliefs and attitudes may change over time or after the completion of a course, and on whether students’ experiences in different EMI courses may differ. This paper specifically reports on students’ perspectives towards different EMI disciplinary courses: International Trade, Film Production and Project Management. Pre-post semester student questionnaires are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results show that students were generally positive towards EMI courses but their attitudes changed to worse at the end of the semester. Students in the International Trade course had more positive attitudes than students in the Film Production and Project Management groups. Findings are discussed in relation to classroom teaching practices in the three groups, which were observed three times over the semester. Finally, teaching implications and language policy-related decisions are also considered.