Archive | 2019
Medium of Instruction Policies and Pedagogies in CSL Teaching
Abstract
This chapter presents a brief historical account of the changing policies surrounding medium of instruction (MoI) along with the developments of teaching approaches in CSL education since 1950s in China. Although globally practised, CSL teaching tends to favour a similar MoI policy regardless of the differences in sociopolitical and sociolinguistic contexts between various countries. The chapter argues that the widespread unproven assumptions about L2 acquisition and the antagonism against English during the promotion of Chinese as another international language could have resulted a deep-rooted monolingual ideology in CSL teaching. The chapter examines the ambiguous definition of ‘medium of instruction’ in the Chinese context and argues for the adoption of more inclusive terms and concept encompassing all linguistic and non-linguistic resources in second language teaching and learning.