Adopting a language policy perspective, this study examines the impact of national, regional, institutional and classroom language policy in an MA TESOL programme at an English Medium of Instruction (EMI) Sino-Foreign university. Our findings show how university language policy is inextricably linked to national and regional policy, inevitably influencing the case study institution's teacher education program.
Building on recent calls within language policy and planning (LPP) research to examine language policies from an institutional level (Hult & Kalkvist, 2016), we examine how language policy impacts TESOL teacher education within a Western-based institution in China. We explore how transnational higher education (TNHE) in general, and transnational practices in particular, play out within our focal institution (Lotus University) where English is the medium of instruction (EMI). Crucially, our study is emblematic of a global trend that has led to a phenomenal rise in the number of off-shore campuses established across Asia. This rise was hastened first by China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, and subsequently by China’s national objective to internationalize and enhance its universities’ global competitiveness. Chinese central and regional governments have adopted EMI as a key strategy to internationalize its higher education and encouraged the establishment of a number of high-level Sino-foreign cooperative projects. To demonstrate how teacher education was mediated and implemented at Lotus University, we analyze government education policies, institutional policies and other documents in media and social media as well as the interviews of students, faculty, administrators and management with regard to their views on the institution's MA TESOL program. By taking on a perspective that conceives of language policy as being comprised of language beliefs, management and practices (Spolsky, 2004), we investigate a relatively underexplored area within teacher education, considering how language policies at the university level (Han, De Costa & Cui, 2016) (i) are inextricably linked to policies at the national and classroom level, and (ii) inevitably influenced the teacher education program at Lotus University. The chapter closes with a discussion of implications that a transcultural flow of professional knowledge has for language policy and TESOL teacher education.
