LAUSR

The dominance of English-medium instruction (EMI) programmes in tertiary education is growing around the world, given the internationalisation of higher education (HE) and globalisation, ‘which influences both language use and the economics of HE’ (Coleman 2006, 1), and the resulting spread of English as a lingua franca. According to a study carried out in 2014 by the Academic Cooperation Association, devoted to the theme of EMI in Europe, ‘27% of the higher education institutions addressed in the study offered at least one ETP [English-taught programme] and about 6% of all study programmes estimated are provided exclusively in English’ (Maiworm and Wächter 2015, 23). Some programmes started in the 1990s and even as early as the 1980s but the years 2009 and 2010 saw a peak in the creation of new ETPs. However, even if those numbers may seem quite limited, there is still ‘plenty of evidence for bilingual or multilingual programmes where some courses are offered in an additional language’ (Valcke and Wilkinson 2017, 15). Recent years have seen a substantial rise in the implementation of EMI programmes that come in many shapes and sizes. There are different types that range from the full integration of content and language in HE (ICLHE) to a split between content and language in courses such as English for specific purposes (ESP) and English for academic purposes (EAP), although attempts to find a common ground between both content and language in these programmes will be further explored in this special issue. What cannot be denied in HE research, and also in the contributions presented here, is that the spread of English as the medium of instruction, the Englishisation of HE, is an evident fact. Not only is it the language that many students need academically and professionally, but it ‘is increasingly also the only language the students and teachers share, i.e. their lingua franca’ (Smit 2013, 17). The interest in content and language integration in HE has opened up new lines of research that are emerging and developing, with the genuine intention of improving language learning in our multilingual world. Some of the challenges that integrating content and language face in HE have often been linked to questions related to how to foster teacher development and incorporate and improve instructional practices following this integrated approach. This special issue looks at HE with this perspective in mind, following different lines of discussion. The first two contributions present a conceptualisation of CLIL in HE. In her article, Barbara Unterberger explains the ‘English-medium paradigm,’ inspired by Räsänen (The Language Network for Quality Assurance [LANQUA] 2010), and created to identify prevalent instructional types in English-taught programmes at universities in non-English-speaking countries. The paradigm is based on conceptual and terminological considerations: English-medium teaching in HE is classified into five distinct categories, namely, Pre-sessional ESP / EAP, Embedded ESP / EAP, Adjunct ESP, EMI and ICLHE. Theoretical concepts are matched with the realities of programme and curriculum design in HE in the hope of raising awareness among programme designers for the implementation