A Comparative Analysis of English-Medium Instruction at the Universities of Messina and Trento: Lecturers’ Opinions, Goals, and Concerns

Abstract

This paper aims to partake in the ongoing debate on English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in Higher Education (HE), starting from the lecturers’ point of view. It is grounded on the empirical data of a quantitative research originally conceived by the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for the Quality and Innovation of Didactics (LIQuID) of the University of Trento and then extended to the University of Messina. As a first step, LIQuID developed a questionnaire to investigate EMI lecturers’ opinions on institutional and didactic objectives and teaching practice (codeswitching, in-class interaction, teaching tools), comparing, when possible, their experience of teaching in their first language (L1) and second language (L2). The data collected refer to EMI modules offered in Trento in the academic year 2018-2019. Since several studies about HE in Italy highlighted how the approaches towards EMI vary between Northern and Southern Italian universities (Pulcini & Campagna, 2015; Costa, 2017), as a further expansion of this research project, Trento’s questionnaire was proposed to Messina’s lecturers who taught EMI classes during the academic year 2023-2024. This enlarged the dataset and made it possible to carry out a comparative analysis of these two HE contexts. This paper provides an overview of this comparison by discussing similarities and differences in the opinions and experiences of EMI lecturers in Trento and Messina. By examining the findings of this ongoing research project, this study ultimately reflects on the role of language in EMI lecturing and the changes in the lecturers’ approaches to teaching in L1 and L2.