EMI Lecturers’ Views on English-Language and Technology-Related Issues during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study

This paper focuses on English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in higher education (HE) and, in particular, on EMI lecturers’ experiences of the shift to online teaching in response to COVID-19. We report the outcomes of a qualitative case study conducted between 2020 and 2021. Data were gathered via interviews addressed to EMI lecturers from the University of Trento. By discussing the findings of this study, we aim to explore whether the shift to Emergency Remote Education (ERE) in EMI settings impacted the balance (or imbalance) between language and content, content-teaching formats (e.g., from lecture-based to participatory-learning methods), and lecturer-student interaction (verbal/non-verbal communication, strategies to improve comprehension, among others). Additionally, we investigate potentialities and criticalities linked to technology-driven education and identify best practices that can be adopted both in online and face-to-face education through English.