Effect of English as Instructional Language on Teacher Learning: An Analysis of Government Teachers Education in Pakistan

Abstract

Teacher educator development has taken integral position in education sector, and, with launch of various programmes, the emphasis on using English as medium of instructions (EMI) in teacher education has increased too. However, language proficiency of teacher educators, who are placed in EMI immersion programmes, stands as one the biggest challenge not only in Pakistan but globally too (Huq, 2018). Teacher Language Awareness (TLA) (Andrews, 2007) framework connects teacher language awareness to pedagogical content, and reveals that a teacher educators language awareness, with respect to both declarative and procedural knowledge, affects the pedagogical content knowledge. Applying this framework, written assessments of non-native teacher educators (Pakistan) are assessed and analysed. Present study is mix-method research that uses qualitative and quantitative methods for data analysis. Value of relationship coefficient ‘r’ between EMI and teacher performance reveals a strong downhill relationship indicating negative effect of EMI on teacher performance in Pakistani context. Similarly, a qualitative analysis of the assessments reveals that EMI inversely affects subject matter cognitions. These findings necessitate measures to be taken which could help improve language proficiency of the teacher educators, as well as reconsider the choice of medium for maximum output and effective learning.