Desarrollo: Educational Equity, Pedagogical Feasibility, and Linguistic Policy in Public Universities
Proponents of internationalization often argue that expanding English-medium instruction (EMI) in public universities enhances institutional prestige, improves global university rankings, and equips graduates with competitive linguistic capital for international labor markets. However, implementing EMI without comprehensive institutional scaffolding and adapted pedagogical frameworks generates profound equity and learning deficits. Evidence from comparative higher education contexts demonstrates that top-down EMI expansion frequently compromises disciplinary content comprehension when students and instructors lack targeted bilingual support (Bradford & Brown, 2018). Rather than fostering inclusive academic mobility, rigid monolingual delivery alienates students from marginalized socioeconomic backgrounds who attended underfunded secondary schools without robust foreign language instruction. Furthermore, recent research on language policy indicates that strict English-only mandates overlook the vital cognitive role of translanguaging, which allows learners to leverage their full linguistic repertoire to grasp complex concepts (Todd, 2021). Uncritical EMI adoption also risks entrenching linguistic hierarchies that position English as the sole legitimate medium of scientific knowledge, reproducing historical inequalities in tertiary education (Pennycook, 2024). In Mexican public universities, where democratic access and regional development are central institutional missions, prioritizing rapid EMI growth over contextualized, plurilingual pedagogy risks deepening educational stratification. Consequently, institutional language policy must prioritize equitable linguistic scaffolding and flexible instructional models before committing scarce public resources to widespread EMI programs.