Students’ performance and English as a medium of instruction: Do students learn less?

Abstract

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is an EU initiative aimed at harmonizing university degrees and attracting international students and staff. Proficiency in the English language is now regarded as a pre-requisite for all business students. By adopting a quasi-experimental design, this article focuses on the effects that teaching Accounting in English as a foreign language (three groups totalling 52 students) may exert on Spanish students’ academic performance (measured through final exam grades), and compares it to the performance of peers having been taught in their native Spanish language (five groups totalling 70 students), where all groups have the same instructor. The impact of language on the students’ test scores is also considered. The findings show that the group using English as a medium of instruction (EMI) obtained better results, which suggests that, in this research context, the language of instruction does not seem to compromise students’ learning of academic content. Furthermore, the achievement of content regarding questions of a more conceptual nature is not dependent on language skills, which seems to contradict previous research. These findings may help foster the implementation of EMI courses, thereby encouraging both universities and students to partake therein. Suggestions are provided to enhance lecturer involvement, drawing on the lecturer’s pedagogical approach.