Navigating the Global Shift: A Qualitative Systematic Review of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in Higher and Secondary Education

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 English Language and Literature, Persian Literature and foreign languages, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The global proliferation of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) has transformed higher and secondary education, driven by the dual imperatives of internationalization and economic competitiveness. Following the PRISMA guidelines, this review synthesizes 26 empirical studies and critically evaluates the impact of EMI, considering attitudes, competencies, classroom interactions, and teacher-student outcomes. This systematic review identifies a tension between the unconditional requirement that English serves as the standard gateway to global civic identity or work mobility and the highly challenging effective implementation of EMI, owing to several pedagogical complications. The review’s significant implications are that: (1) "English-only" policies are highly inconsistent with the pedagogical approach of translanguaging; (2) the prerequisite for effective classroom interactions is the teacher’s self-efficacy beliefs, rather than linguistic skills; (3) the "content effect" of EMI significantly harms academic outcomes, especially among less academically proficient groups; and (4) inadequate institutional support infrastructure exists for pedagogical retraining, particularly the authorization requirements for valid certification. The review concludes that, to implement EMI effectively, institutions must abandon the instrumental instinct, which serves as the primary driver, and instead acquire appropriate pedagogical skills for content-based learning rather than linguistic learning alone.

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Main Subjects

Copyright © 2026 The Author(s). Published by the Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages at the University of Mazandaran. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.

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History

  • Receive Date: 28 February 2026
  • Revise Date: 30 May 2026
  • Accept Date: 02 June 2026
  • First Publish Date: 24 June 2026
  • Publish Date: 01 July 2026

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