Instructor practices and espoused beliefs about bilingual courses: the case of a Colombian university

Abstract

Recent studies show that English as the medium of instruction seems impractical and ineffective in countries where English is the second or foreign language. The situation becomes even more complicated because of students’ resistance to an English-only format. In response to this, universities around the world also offer first language-English bilingual courses. Although bilingual courses are a legitimate opportunity to achieve internationalization, very little is known about bilingual teaching practices (BTPs) and the instructors’ espoused beliefs about this type of practice. In this cross-sectional study, the twenty-eight-item questionnaire created by Archila and Truscott de Mejía (2020a) was adapted to explore the practices and espoused beliefs of three hundred eleven instructors from twelve schools at a Colombian university. Findings indicate that instructors used to include some BTPs in their courses. Nonetheless, there was evidence that they needed more preparation and support for the creation, implementation, and assessment of this type of practice. Most importantly, our results support the claim that bi/multilingual higher education policies should respond to the nature of each discipline. Relevant policy implications are discussed in light of the call of some authors to move towards university first language-English bilingual courses.