Micro-level analysis has verified the usefulness of the adoption of audiovisual aids, translation in native language, and mode-shifting (cf. Gibbons 2002, 2003, 2009). For example, such visual aids as maps, formula, tables, figures, and pictures often accompanied explanations to aid comprehension. As one of T2’s students explained,
If he’s [T2] talking about a particular country [in Africa], and we’re not that familiar with its location…. But, with the map, we can completely understand…. It makes it easier for us to connect those contributory factors
[to particular historical events].
In addition, translation of technical terms into the native language, in this case Chinese, fostered students’ comprehension. As one of T3’s students explained,
I can understand! It’s magic! Because I thought it’s a content course [taught in English], but probably because the instructor talked slowly… and sometimes… like technical terms, the instructor would translate them into Chinese and also write it on the blackboard. So you’d understand what he’s talking about.
Yet not all the translation in Chinese was deemed effective. T4 initially lectured all in English, but when he observed students’ puzzled facial expressions, he re-explained the concepts in English to international students and in Chinese for Taiwanese students. Such repetition, albeit time-consuming, was well-received by students. Even so, both the instructor and students still worried material had not sufficiently been covered. Also, the students might not listen to lecture in English.
As one of T4’s students admitted, “The instructor lectured once in English and once in Chinese. So I simply pay attention to the Chinese part.” Such reaction was noticed by T4, and hence in our second interview, he expressed the decrease of switching to Chinese. In this context, it is noted that Gibbons (2002, 2003, 2009) discerns that amplifying or message abundancy does not mean “pure repetition”
but recontextualizing a concept. To this end, providing Chinese-equivalent explanations may not achieve the desired goal without the use of other techniques.
The most important form of the micro-level amplifying is called recontextualization through mode shifting, referring to the change of written or spoken discourses or one academic text with another (Gibbons, 2002, 2003, 2009).
The instructors paraphrased the written texts using mode-shifting, which often occurs with a combination of audiovisual aids, graphic organizers, and Chinese translation. Table 2 illustrates how T3 paraphrased the written texts of “equilibrium in game theory” by using less complex sentence structures, passive voice, and abstract words. The left column of Table 2 represents excerpts explaining
“equilibrium in game theory” from the textbook shown on the PowerPoint slide.
Note that this explanation includes an embedded sentence structure with passive voice and abstract words or phrases (“economic actors”). The right-hand column represents T3’s mode-shifting through paraphrasing by using conditional sentences
with active voice and concrete words or phrases (“player”). Likewise, when explaining game theory, T3 read aloud the written texts on the PowerPoint slides with the direct Chinese translation, followed by the conditional sentence with active voice and everyday language (“think” instead of “consider”). In doing so, he was able to simplify complex academic texts in English for his students.
Table 2 An Illustration of T3’s Mode-Shifting
Written text Spoken text
A Nash equilibrium is a situation in which economic actors interacting with one another each choose their best strategy given the strategies that all the others have chosen.
Game theory is the study of how people behave in strategic situations.
Strategic decisions are those in which each person, in deciding what actions to take, must consider how others might respond to that action.
T3: So now for the equilibrium in the game… if the other player doesn’t change the strategy, then this player is going to follow that strategy all the time, the player doesn’t want to change, so that is the equilibrium.
T3: … so for the game theory, it is “a study of how people behave in a strategic situation,” ((T3 reads the PowerPoint slide.)) Zai yi ge ce lue de quing kuang zhi xia, ni yao ze me qu4 behave, “and strategic decisions are those in which each person, in deciding what actions to take, must consider how others might respond to that actions.” ((T3 reads the PowerPoint slide.)) To know when you are doing one action, you ought to think about how other people are going to react, and if you know how they are going to react, then you can modify what you have to do right now….
(Economics in the ETP in University A)
Indeed, the results of this study confirm previous findings of amplifying as a significant pedagogical principle (Gibbons, 2002, 2003, 2009; Walqui, 2006;
Walqui & van Lier, 2010), with an aim to obtain content and cognitive objectives.
Table 3 summarizes three principles used by the instructors at the macro, meso, and micro level, with their corresponding objectives. The consideration of content, cognitive, and culture objectives reflects that these instructors consider themselves subject-matter instructors responsible for increasing novices’ academic abilities and socialize them into academia (Huang, 2012).
4 “Zai yi ge ce lue de quing kuang zhi xia, ni yao ze me qu” is a Chinese-equivalent phrase for “in a strategic situation, how people,” which is in need of a verb. This explains the reason that T3 code-switched to “behave.”
Table 3 Multi-layered Guidance Used by Instructors
The above section showcases that instructors attempt to achieve content, cognitive, and cultural objectives with the focus on the language of learning, i.e.
technical concepts.Language use through and for learning becomes a “by-product”
(cf. Fortanet-Dómez, 2010) presumably because instructors and students believe that the primary pedagogical goal of a content teacher is to aid in subject-matter not language learning. As T1 expressed, “I don’t think students are learning English [in EMI courses]…. English learning in this class is simply a by-product,”
and as T2’s student explained, “I’m not here to learn vocabulary such as political independence…; I’m here to learn about how it [xxx government] functions.” As such, language learning was believed to be achieved through learners’ exposure to comprehensible input with positive emotions (Pecorari et al., 2011; Yeh, 2013), and hence language-learning objectives were rarely explicitly planned at the macro-level design of the curriculum. It is unsurprising that the instructors’ and students’ perceived improvement lies primarily in cognitive and receptive language skills. Their limited attention to language objectives may indicate an underestimation of the intricate relationship between content and language, and hence clarification should be provided for both content teachers and students.
Even if explicit language instruction and correction were provided, this study reveals that they were not viewed as effective by most students. The curriculum planning for language instruction and correction included (a) requiring students to