When policy is silent: hidden language policy and teacher-made language governance in English-medium higher education

As English-medium instruction (EMI) expands across internationalised higher education, attention has focused on how institutional language policies are enacted in practice. While research has highlighted teachers’ role in mediating EMI policy, less is known about how repeated pedagogical practices become unofficial yet consequential forms of language regulation. This study investigates how teachers contribute to hidden language policy in EMI higher education. Drawing on Spolsky’s language policy framework, an interpretivist qualitative case study collected data from 17 teachers through interviews, classroom observations, stimulated recall, and institutional artefacts, analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings showed that although English was institutionally positioned as the legitimate language of instruction, formal policy remained pedagogically underdefined. Teachers consequently negotiated institutional expectations through multilingual practices, collegial interaction, and professional judgement. As these practices were repeatedly enacted, collectively reinforced, and institutionally tolerated, they became socially recognised forms of language regulation alongside formal policy. The study extends language policy as practice by explaining how hidden language policy emerges through the routinisation and institutionalisation of teacher practice.