English medium instruction: classification of international students’ challenges

Globalization has had a tremendous impact on tertiary education all over the world, prompting many universities in non-native English-speaking countries to develop strategies aimed at raising the quality of the education they offer and increasing their market presence in the international education arena, with English Medium Instruction (EMI) becoming the driving force of internationalization and a prevalent phenomenon in tertiary education. There is irrefutable evidence that English Medium Instruction (EMI) is now a global phenomenon. For the EMI to be successfully implemented at a university both the administration and faculty should be aware of the challenges that international students experience. The challenges have been extensively studied in the literature though there is not a comprehensive classification of EMI challenges. The aim of our study is to analyze the literature on EMI challenges of international students and define the main categories of these challenges. The critical analysis of the literature revealed that the challenges of international students that study at EMI programmes can be divided into four main clusters: linguistic, academic, cultural and social ones. The results of the research can be used to develop language policy of the university and design measures to facilitate international students’ adaptation to a new academic environment. Further research is needed to compare the EMI challenges found in the literature with the challenges that experience international students studying at a Russian university.