Partial English-medium instruction as a participation condition: appraisal, coping, and transition in higher education

Abstract While full English-medium instruction (EMI) has been widely studied, partial EMI remains under-theorised despite being common in higher education. This article develops a conceptual account of partial EMI as a tacit condition for participation in otherwise national/majority-language programmes. Drawing on Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional model of stress and coping and Nicholson’s transition cycle, we argue that selective English-medium demands may become psychologically consequential through students’ appraisals of demands and coping resources, and temporally consequential when repeated encounters reactivate transition rather than allow adjustment to stabilise. Four retrospective interview accounts from novice students in Swedish higher education serve as illustrative cases through which the conceptual argument is developed. The conceptual analysis illustrates how English-language encounters may be appraised as threat, harm/loss, or challenge and negotiated through coping efforts such as adapting through effort, avoiding and withdrawing, reframing and improvising, and seeking recognition and informal solidarity. It further illustrates how such encounters may be repeatedly reactivated across transition phases. Rather than identifying new student strategies, the article reframes familiar practices as appraisal-linked coping responses to participation conditions in which English appears selectively and without consistent institutional recognition. It contributes to EMI and transition research by showing how tacit language demands may shift responsibility for adaptation onto students, raising questions about recognition, scaffolding, and post-entry equity in partial EMI.