English-Medium Instruction in Spanish universities: A systematic review

Abstract

EMI (English-medium instruction) has mushroomed in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Spain since 2010, when universities joined the Bologna Declaration and adapted their academic offer to the European Higher Education Area. Spanish institutions followed the example of their European counterparts, and nowadays most HEIs offer English-taught programmes, aiming to become more visible globally, attract international students, and climb up rankings of higher education.The fast spread of EMI has outpaced both theoretical frameworks and research studies. Therefore, a systematic review of the investigation on EMI in Spanish universities will contribute to identifying the most prominent challenges for lecturers, students, and HEIs in this context. Aiming to achieve a better understanding of the most salient findings in the field, the current paper presents a systematic review of studies analysing EMI in Spanish universities in the last decade (2013-2022). For this purpose, studies indexed in three databases – Web of Science, ERIC, and Scopus – were examined. Several clusters of terms associated with “EMI in Spain”, “English Medium Instruction at Spanish universities”, and “English taught courses in higher education in Spain” were used.The current review provides a general panorama of the research conducted on EMI in the Spanish context and the results obtained so far, while it will also help to identify which topics or research lines have been overlooked or neglected.

Keywords: EMI, bilingual education, tertiary education, Spain, systematic review.