Exploring the Difficulties of Implementing English as a Medium of Instruction for the Primary Stages

The present study explores the challenges of implementing English as a medium instruction (EMI) for English Second Language Learners at private school in Abu Dhabi for the primary stages. It targets to reveal the reasons behind challenges of using EMI and discuss some suggestions to promote the educational environment for using EMI effectively. To fulfil the mentioned purposes, qualitative research which includes document analysis was implemented. The findings show that implementing EMI in the educational institutions has several challenges such as ignoring the role of the teacher as a key stakeholder in employing EMI approach, lack of qualified language teachers, discrepancy between theory and practice and using both Arabic and English as a medium of instruction. Hopefully, this study would be useful for scholars, educators, students, school leaders and policy makers in identifying the major obstacles from using EMI and finding out solutions to overcome these obstacles. Additionally, More researches about EMI should be conducted to recognize the needs of learners and identify the correct direction for employing EMI among ESL students.