In China, EMI has been a core aim of the Chinese Government since 2001 with the declaration from the Ministry of Education to aim for 5%-10% of undergraduate courses in Chinese universities to be delivered through English medium Instruction (EMI), as a part of the Chinese Government’s overall strategy to internationalize.  The research project took place in a Chinese branch campus of a British university. While the university advertises itself as providing a British university education and experience, it also positions itself as ‘international’, which is reflected in the promotion of an EMI language policy.

The majority of students on this campus are Chinese but with a diverse minority encompassing a range of first languages. Consequently, English is officially expected to be strictly implemented in classrooms. Nevertheless, wider use of English, in activities and contacts outside the classroom, is tolerated and even encouraged, particularly since many of the university’s lecturers are not first language English speakers.

The aim of the research is to uncover university lecturers’ attitudes to EMI and how this may impact on their practices. In-depth interviews were carried out with seventeen teachers, chosen to represent a diversity of disciplines and linguistic backgrounds.

We found differing interpretations of what it means for a university to be international – or even ‘British’. This was reflected in beliefs about their practices and different levels of tolerance for the use of other languages in the classroom.  Therefore, while an institutional language policy provides a loose framework for lecturers to adhere to, on the ground, a practised language policy (Bonacina-Pugh, 2012), allowed lecturers to adapt classroom management to suit their own beliefs and ideologies.