The Feasibility of Implementing the Programs of English-Medium Instruction for Internationalization in Higher Education

With the trend toward internationalization and globalization, English-medium instruction (EMI) programs emerge as an innovation of the curriculum in different departments of universities in Asian countries for promoting the development of internationalization in higher education. This study thus targets both the teachers who are responsible for implementing EMI programs and the students who take EMI programs in one of the universities in Taiwan and explores whether and how these teachers and students hold positive attitudes toward implementing such programs by drawing upon qualitative research. As the results of the study show that university teachers' attitudes toward the necessity of implementing such programs are less positive than those of university students due to the lack of receiving professional training in teaching English for specific purposes (ESP), it is concluded that EMI programs can be well implemented through both the teamwork in which those who are responsible for implementing such programs in different departments work with general English teachers and the cooperation of the students who take such programs. Since these teachers and students in the university of this study are found to recognize the importance of learning the ways to communicate and interact with people coming from different countries in the workplace via the English language to students' future career needs, the study highlights the notion that implementing EMI programs in which the training of intercultural communication is included as part of intercultural education is indeed an essential mission for either enabling students to develop a certain level of competence to respond to world affairs in the global society of the 21st century or promoting the development of internationalization in higher education.