Designing a pre-service teacher education course in English for the medium of instruction

Since the turn of the century, many universities in non-Anglophone countries have switched to a policy of English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI) for many of their courses or programs. This policy switch has created pedagogy challenges. Two of those pedagogy challenges include 1) the ability of the students to learn in English as a Second Language (ESL) and 2) the ability of some teachers to teach in what is termed here as "English for the Medium of Instruction" (EFMI). This paper will discusses the process of designing and assessing an EFMI course at a university in Hong Kong intended to address that second challenge. The first stage in the process was to gain institutional acknowledgment of the reification of EFMI, followed by university approval of an EFMI course syllabus, and the design and development of course materials in the final stage. The course was recently offered for the first time as part of pre-service teacher education for future instructors who do not use English as their primary language. The design of the EFMI course had to negotiate three pedagogical/educational approaches to course design: 1) an outcomes-based teaching approach which is expected for all publically-funded universities in Hong Kong, 2) afunctional approach to language pedagogy, and 3) a 'discovery' approach embracing the university curriculum-at-large.