English as a Medium of Instruction. A ‘Resentment Study’ of a Micro EMI Context

In this paper I take the invitation invoked by Ammon (2001) to contribute to the current debate on English-mediated instruction in European universities by offering a critical assessment (or a “resentment study” to borrow Ammon’s words) of a micro EMI context. The setting under scrutiny is the School of Management and Economics, University of Torino, characterized, like many other Italian universities, by an increasing proliferation of curricular courses held in English mainly activated to meet the pressing demands of internationalization. This “resentment study” is based on a survey conducted in this specific context aimed at assessing the lecturers’ perception of EMI through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews administered to 50 participants. Results seem to confirm conflicting views on EMI in line with previous studies specifically focusing on the Italian scenario (Costa/Coleman 2013 Campagna/Pulcini 2014; Molino/Campagna 2014; Pulcini/Campagna 2015). In this chapter I propose to expand on the key concept of “international posture” developed in Yashima (2002, 2009) as a possible framework for reducing the gap between top-down EMI directives and bottom-up blurred perceptions.