Understanding English-Medium Instruction in Vietnamese Higher Education: Voices of Teachers and Students

Abstract

English as a medium of instruction (EMI), which is the teaching of content subjects in English where most of the population's first language is not English, has seen fast expansion in recent decades because of global trends in higher education institution internationalization. The entire picture of EMI, which mostly occurs in tertiary education, has also seen exponential growth in Vietnam. The implementation of EMI in Vietnam's higher education sector has received little attention (Tri & Moskovsky, 2019), particularly when it comes to identifying some of the benefits and drawbacks of these EMI programs (Yen & Thong, 2019).  Consequently, the goal of this study was to investigate the problem from the perspectives of the students and the lecturers. For effective and professional EMI teaching and learning, several pedagogical implications can be drawn and discussed.