Temporality and EMI policy in Saudi higher education institutions: a search for just pledges and promises

• Alzahrani, Ayman A. ^[1]
  1. [1] King Abdulaziz University

     King Abdulaziz University

     Arabia Saudí

     
• Localización: Language policy, ISSN 1568-4555, Vol. 25, Nº. 1, 2026
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1007/s10993-026-09771-z
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • This paper argues that time and temporality have not been explicitly used in the examination of English-medium instruction (EMI) policy in bi/multilingual contexts. To address this scholarly gap, building on Koselleck, R. (2004). Futures past: On the semantics of historical time. Columbia University Press. theory of multiple temporalities, this study uses the program of an engineering college at Future University (a pseudonym) in Saudi Arabia as a qualitative case example to investigate how time/temporality is experienced and conceived at both individual and institutional levels. Through the methodology of “an attentive walk from psychogeography” and ‘hiwar’—حوار—a dialogue with three engineering students, I show how the adoption of a modernist, linear, and yet accelerated English language skills development practices may bring about temporal inequality in EMI policy at the engineering college. I also highlight how such a linear temporality (re)produces a ‘skills fetish’ that undermines the dynamic and multiple rhythms of language learning, as well as knowledge construction more broadly. I close the paper with some temporal pedagogical and practical interventions for language-in-education policy in Saudi HE institutions.

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