Using Environment and Needs Analyses to Innovate an Intensive English Course in Transnational Bachelor’s Programs

Given the growing trend of transnational undergraduate programs in Vietnam, the study explores the process of renovating the curriculum to prepare students for transnational programs in Business Studies at one of the leading public universities in Hanoi, Vietnam. Initially, the Intensive English Course (IEC) pathway, which consisted of 600 hours of instruction, focused solely on developing skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking in order to equip students with the essential skills to achieve IELTS 5.5 for the entry requirements into an English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) program in Business Studies. However, both lecturers and students later recognized that the English course did not sufficiently prepare students to perform effectively when students officially started their EMI programs. Students were challenged by content-related language as well as the academic standards of international partner universities. To innovate the existing IEC program, the curriculum developers made use of the theoretical framework of the curriculum design process developed by Macalister and Nation (2012). Within the framework, such factors as environment and need analysis related to the EMI programs were explored. In particular, besides preparing students’ four language skills to pass the language entry requirements, the course development took into consideration the EMI program’s academic environment (environment analysis) and academic requirements of the program (needs analysis). This process revealed that the backward design approach helped to identify important long-term outcomes of the IEC and used them as guiding principles in curriculum design. The practical recommendations derived from both analyses have aided the development of transnational education in Vietnam by bridging the gap between different educational systems and suggesting a more robust English course that would lay a solid foundation for students to perform effectively in their next phase of study.