Innovation in Language Learning

As part of the trend towards internationalisation of higher education in Vietnam, English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI) courses are increasingly introduced into tertiary teaching and training at Vietnamese universities. Labelled as ‘high-quality’, and ‘advanced’ education, EMI programmes are considered as a quick and superior fix to enhancing students’ English proficiency by policy makers. This study seeks to problematise this top-down view by investigating the effects of EMI versus local-language medium instruction education on students’ English self-efficacy beliefs, content learning and English proficiency at a public university in Vietnam. Through a comparative longitudinal design, this study aims to compare and contrast the extent to which English versus Vietnamese as the Medium of Instruction helps students to achieve their learning outcomes in consideration of other socioeconomic variables.  

Keywords: English as the Medium of Instruction (EMI), content and language integrated learning (CLIL), English for Specific Purposes, internationalisation of higher education, self-efficacy, comparative research.