English-Medium-Instruction Management: The Missing Piece in the Internationalisation Puzzle of Vietnamese Higher Education

Abstract

Mandating English as the medium of instruction (EMI) is a common strategy that higher education institutions (HEIs) in non-English-dominant contexts often use in the process of internationalisation. The English language has, therefore, become a tool that enables the internationalisation and mobility of academics, students, programs and institutions. However, one problem relating to EMI is the issue of teaching and learning quality because students and academics have to work in a foreign language and encounter much difficulty. Vietnamese higher education (HE) is a case in point when its government promulgated HE reform in 2005 in which internationalisation and EMI served as the key for enhancing the sector. EMI has then been stipulated in an increasing number of universities, often in cooperation with HEIs from English-speaking countries. Against that background, the study reported in this chapter presents the EMI implementation realities in a Vietnamese university with focus on language aspects. Using Language Management Theory as the framework of analysis, it is revealed that EMI in Vietnamese HE has been regarded as a means to an end in the process of internationalisation rather than a strategic approach to improve students’ and academics’ English language proficiency (ELP), also to access updated trans-national knowledge and intellectual resources and to enhance international collaboration. It is, argued that the absence of an organised language management for EMI has disadvantaged academics and students and therefore hampered institutional and national goal of improving education quality in the context of globalisation and internationalisation.