Exploring bilingual learners’ desires in English-medium studies: evidence from a Thai private bilingual school

The last two decades have seen huge changes in the focus of English language education in non-Anglophone countries and jurisdictions around the world. English as a medium of instruction (EMI), as opposed to English as the object of instruction has been burgeoning in many Asian societies. While there is fruitful research on English language teaching and learning in Asia, less attention is drawn to the students’ experiences and perceptions about using English to learn academic content. Drawing on data collected in a bilingual secondary school in Bangkok, Thailand, the current study explores EFL learners’ perceptions, desires and discursively constructed identities in the EMI academic program. It is found that while the EFL students actively invest in EMI studies under multiple and sometimes contradictory desires shaped and reshaped by desires of their parents and the State as well as themselves, they seem to embrace the hegemony of white, native English. It is therefore suggested that critical and egalitarian multilingualism should be added as an element in the English-medium academic programs in Asia-pacific secondary education.