Abstract:
Many non-English speaking countries are shifting towards English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI), including Algeria, where the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education officially mandated the shift to EMI in a number medical faculties starting in 2025. However, there is a lack of understanding regarding how this EMI policy is being perceived by the professors themselves. This study explores the readiness of University Hospital Professors (UHPs) in the Department of Medicine at the University of Bejaia to implement EMI, focusing on their self-reported abilities, training needs, and the internal and external factors influencing their readiness. Based on Macaro’s (2018) EMI Teacher Competence Framework, this research adopts a mixed-methods descriptive design based on the triangulation of quantitative data from 24 structured questionnaires with qualitative data from six in-depth semi-structured interviews. The results of this research reveal a significant policy-practice mismatch between top-down expectations and bottom-up realities, and identify a critical linguistic-pedagogical dissonance. In addition, inferential statistics demonstrate that UHPs with higher linguistic proficiency reported feeling less ready to transition to EMI than their less-proficient peers, which means that language is not the only barrier to EMI. Thus, this study highlights an urgent need to shift from generic language courses toward integrated linguistic and pedagogical training, and offer UHPs more flexible and tailored institutional support
