Affect is a highly contested term extending beyond “emotions”. This talk focuses on affective dimensions experienced by, and subsequently managed by multilingual students. The premise is that with knowledge of affective learning strategies, stakeholders from policy developers to teachers can tailor EMI courses to better meet student needs.
As competition for international students rises around the world, increasing the number of EMI degree courses across Germany has become an economically pragmatic endeavour. With this in mind, business students at a German state university were surveyed about what affective dimensions, such as vulnerability and self-efficacy, they experience, and what strategies they develop to manage these dimensions. The underlying premise behind the small-scale study presented here is that students, and consequently teachers, are better able to cope with the demands of EMI education if they are aware of and able to manage the affective dimensions they encounter. For policy-makers, these findings offer practical insights into how reducing cognitive-affective load arising from operating in a foreign language can be supported through, for example, EMI teacher training policies. Demonstrating a clear understanding of how to facilitate student academic success increases the attractiveness of Higher Education institutions in the fiercely competitive global tertiary education market. The study under scrutiny here is a pilot for a broader PhD research project addressing the lacuna in EMI research focused on affective learning strategies. It aims to contribute to the generally lacking guidelines and advice for both learning and teaching in EMI classes (Dearden, 2014; Macaro et al., 2018). According to Soruc and Griffiths (2017) the intersectionality of affective dimensions and pedagogical challenges in EMI classes warrant further investigation. This investigation will be conducted through a mixed methods approach, with an emphasis on qualitative data collection in recognition of the personal nature of affect. Results from the pilot survey confirm which affective dimensions warrant specific focus for the main study.
