The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is an EU initiative aimed at harmonizing university degrees and attracting international students and staff. Proficiency in the English language is now regarded as a pre-requisite for all business students. By adopting a quasi-experimental design, this article focuses on the effects that teaching Accounting in English as a foreign language (three groups totalling 52 students) may exert on Spanish students’ academic performance (measured through final exam grades), and compares it to the performance of peers having been taught in their native Spanish language (five groups totalling 70 students), where all groups have the same instructor. The impact of language on the students’ test scores is also considered. The findings show that the group using English as a medium of instruction (EMI) obtained better results, which suggests that, in this research context, the language of instruction does not seem to compromise students’ learning of academic content. Furthermore, the achievement of content regarding questions of a more conceptual nature is not dependent on language skills, which seems to contradict previous research. These findings may help foster the implementation of EMI courses, thereby encouraging both universities and students to partake therein. Suggestions are provided to enhance lecturer involvement, drawing on the lecturer’s pedagogical approach.

中文翻译：

---

学生的表现和英语作为教学语言：学生学得少吗？


欧洲高等教育区（EHEA）是欧盟的一项倡议，旨在协调大学学位并吸引国际学生和教职员工。熟练掌握英语现在被视为所有商科学生的先决条件。本文采用准实验设计，重点研究英语作为外语的会计教学（三组共 52 名学生）对西班牙学生学业成绩（通过期末考试成绩衡量）的影响，并将其与同学们的表现是用他们的母语西班牙语进行教学的（五个小组，总共 70 名学生），所有小组都有相同的老师。还考虑了语言对学生考试成绩的影响。研究结果表明，使用英语作为教学媒介（EMI）的小组获得了更好的结果，这表明，在本研究背景下，教学语言似乎并没有损害学生对学术内容的学习。此外，关于概念性问题的内容的实现并不依赖于语言技能，这似乎与之前的研究相矛盾。这些发现可能有助于促进 EMI 课程的实施，从而鼓励大学和学生参与其中。借鉴讲师的教学方法，提出了加强讲师参与的建议。