Aligning perceptions with reality: Lebanese EMI instructor perceptions of students’ writing proficiency

With the rise of English as the language of global communication, English is increasingly being adopted as the Medium of Instruction (EMI) in countries where it is not the first language. When implementing EMI, a primary concern is students' lack of English proficiency and the impact this has on teaching content (Bradford, 2016; Hu & Lei, 2014; Kim, Kim & Kweon, 2018; Macaro et al., 2018). One country where EMI has been widely adopted across both secondary and higher education is Lebanon. While research has documented Lebanese EMI instructors' perceptions of their students' proficiency and their perceived role in the classroom, research into Lebanese EMI students' academic writing proficiency remains limited (Khachan & Bacha, 2012). The present study seeks to build on this research by examining the challenges Lebanese EMI students face when writing for academic purposes through an analyses of students' assignments in a discipline course and triangulating them with teachers' perceptions of students' writing challenges. This comparison revealed that the instructors' perceptions aligned with students' performance on two of the three perceived challenges noted in the interviews. These conclusions may serve to inform EMI policy and curriculum design by reconciling instructors' perceptions with the reality of their students’ linguistic proficiency and learning needs.