University lecturers' beliefs and practices about the use of first languages and English in EMI

There is increasing research into the beliefs of EMI lecturers. However, there are few studies relating such beliefs to actual classroom practices, especially in Southeast Asian contexts. This chapter compares two case studies exploring Malaysian and Thai lecturers' beliefs and practices. Data were collected in two universities through interviews, classroom observations and post-lesson reflections. The findings reveal that academic content was delivered exclusively in English in the Malaysian university, but predominantly in Thai in the other university. In each context, code-switching was used for interactional, rather than academic purposes, and it was found that that working in both languages (translanguaging) could be academically useful. Among the implications of both studies is that the student's first language has an important role to play in teaching EMI classes.