Paper Title
English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education in Uzbekistan: Teachers‟ Challenges and Beliefs

Abstract
This article outlines the need to explore university instructors’ perceptions toward the use of the English-medium instruction (EMI) in Uzbek context. It starts by providing a brief overview of EMI globally and role of English in Uzbekistan. Semi-structured interviews with ten EMI instructors from different universities are conducted. Primarily qualitative method was used to gather and analyze the data. The main focus of the study is to explore the pedagogical beliefs of teachers’ perceptions of EMI in Uzbekistan and examine participants’ beliefs about benefits and challenges of EMI in higher education (HE). The responses of semi-structured interview questions demonstrate that despite common beliefs of EMI lecturers, some interesting variabilities in their perceptions, relating to the challenges and final thoughts about EMI could be detected. The findings of this study suggest that further investigation of mixed research study might provide much more information about how the phenomenon of EMI is being introduced and accepted in Uzbek context. Keywords - English-Medium Instruction (EMI), Teachers’ Perceptions, Higher Education, Englishization, Anglophone Countries, Lingua Franca.