Masri, Taghreed Ibrahim2021-07-252021-07-252020Masri, T. (2020). English Medium Instruction and Human Linguistic Rights: Academic, Psychological and Cultural Suffering, International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, 28(3), 514-543. https://doi.org/10.1163/15718115-280300031385-4879https://doi.org/10.1163/15718115-28030003http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12519/415This article is not available at CUD collection. The version of scholarly record of this article is published in International Journal on Minority and Group Rights (2020), available online at: https://doi.org/10.1163/15718115-28030003In higher education in the UAE, English is used as the medium of instruction, while academic Arabic is relegated to few electives that can be also taken in English. Policy makers perceive the transition from Arabic medium instruction (ami) schools to English medium instruction (emi) universities as normal and automatic. This study aims to explore how students see this transition, and whether they find it automatic and smooth, or embroiled in hardship and difficulties. It is based on a critical theoretical framework and is approached using exploratory critical methodology. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty undergraduate Arab students in three English-medium universities. Results showed that students faced psychological, academic, social and cultural difficulties associated with the transition from Arabic schools to English-medium instruction universities.enPermission to reuse abstract has been secured from Brill | Nijhoff.transitionEnglish-medium instruction (emi)linguistic rightsminoritysufferinghigher educationArticle