English Medium Instruction (EMI) researchers have called for studies that extend our understanding of EMI classroom discourse and the role of language in EMI in general (Dalton-Puffer & Smit, 2013; McKinley & Rose, 2022; Macaro, 2019). Corpus-based analytical frameworks are well-suited to analyze large amounts of naturally occurring language data and thus to provide reliable and verifiable findings about situationally defined language use such as language use in EMI contexts (see also Chapter 9, Author, this volume).

The primary goal of this chapter is to introduce the principles and practices of carrying out an additive multi-dimensional (MD) analysis (Biber, 1988; Berber Sardina et al., 2019) affording an empirically driven comprehensive linguistic analysis of variation in a register that could be applied to an EMI context. Our case study showcases the methodology using 500,000 words of text from the Singapore EMI corpus (SEMIC). Relying on the results of the MD analysis, this chapter also demonstrates how to identify text types via cluster analysis, which could provide additional information about classroom discourse. It will demonstrate show how these advanced quantitative analytical frameworks can be applied to analyze EMI classroom discourse. The chapter will also highlight practical aspects of MD analysis.

This chapter discusses how questionnaire-based research can be implemented in the English Medium Instruction (EMI) contexts. It presents an empirical study which that examined Chinese EMI university students’ attitudes and motivation (i.e., integrative and instrumental orientations) toward learning content subject knowledge in English. An EMI scale adapted from Gardner’s (2004) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB), which takes the format of Likert-point scale as explained in Chapter 3 of the this book, was validated and administered to 541 EMI students from three Chinese universities. The validity and reliability of the scale were measured, the correlations of the three dimensions (i.e., attitudes, integrative orientation, and instrumental motivation) were tested, and the role of demographic variables (i.e., gender, level of study, disciplinary background) in EMI attitudes and motivation were explored. The research findings suggest the validity and reliability of the scale, the positive correlations among the three dimensions, and the different degrees of EMI attitudes and motivation between male and female students and between soft science and hard science students. The researchers argue that questionnaire-based research is appropriate for the EMI contexts, but its effectiveness can be enhanced if the mixed methods design is adopted.

English Medium Instruction (EMI) research has highlighted the transition from secondary schools to EMI higher education as a critical stage that shapes students’ learning behaviors and perceptions. However, longitudinal studies that draw on a quantitative design to outline students’ patterns of academic development during the transition period are scarce. While investigating students’ language-related academic difficulties, previous research has predominantly treated students as a unitary cohort without exploring the disparities that may arise from individual difference variables. This chapter reports an empirical case study that adopts a longitudinal quantitative design to identify patterns of change in students’ perceptions of lecture listening difficulties during their first semester transitioning into an EMI university in China. The study also explores variations in these patterns that are associated with students’ English listening proficiency upon entry. Key methodological procedures for designing and implementing the study will be introduced, while along with sharing suggestions for handling the typical challenges of attrition and missing data in longitudinal quantitative research. The chapter concludes with methodological implications of the study for EMI research, and offers suggestions for future research based on a critical reflection of the study’s limitations.