Linguistically Responsive Instruction in International Branch Campuses: Beliefs and Practices of Liberal Arts and STEM Instructors

This study proposes employing linguistically responsive instruction (LRI) in transnational higher education such as international branch campuses (IBCs). It sheds light on the beliefs and practices of content instructors teaching in English-medium IBCs, in terms of supporting students’ academic language development. Previous studies have shown how content instructors, particularly in STEM fields, do not see teaching language as part of their role in the classroom and do not attach importance to it. However, students in IBC contexts often need more language support. 101 IBC instructors from various disciplines completed a survey regarding their beliefs about providing language support for students. A purposeful sampling of 6 engineering, science, and liberal arts instructors were also video-recorded teaching their classes and then interviewed about LRI practices using stimulated-recall techniques. Findings show that while STEM instructors tended to align less with LRI than liberal arts instructors on the surveys, they employed multiple LRI practices while observed teaching. The study shows the importance of going beyond just attitudinal surveys when it comes to understanding STEM instructors’ dispositions toward teaching language, and it is proposed that IBCs create dialogic, multidisciplinary faculty learning communities on academic language development and meaning making resources.