CLIL or EMI? Confusion, Implementation and Success of EMI in the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Ferrara: A Case Study

CLIL and EMI programmes are among the most important teaching methodologies, which have increasingly gained attention worldwide in countries where English is not the native language of instruction (Rigg 2013). The rise of English-medium programmes in European higher and tertiary education is influenced by processes of globalization (and internationalization) as well as Europeanization (Phillipson 2008). EMI, in particular, seems to have gained more and more attention on behalf of European universities in response to changes in the international education system over the last two decades. As far as the European university context is concerned, Italy seems to be a relative newcomer to EMI. In 2012, the OECD classified Italy as a country offering ‘no or nearly no programmes in English’, based on data from 2010. Although Italy is undoubtedly lagging behind many northern European countries, it is worth noting that English Taught Programmes are increasing fast. The Department of Economics and Management of the University of Ferrara has recently begun to implement EMI in postgraduate courses. After the initial confusion between CLIL and EMI, professors decided to implement EMI in an attempt to increase international openness, attractiveness, and competitiveness to varying degrees. Three important issues are particularly explored in this study, namely: 1) changes carried out to suit the lecture format to the EMI lectures, as compared to traditional lecture formats delivered in Italian for the same subject matter, 2) level of language proficiency of both EMI lecturers and students and 3) opinions about EMI implementation by both lecturers and students.