English-Medium-Instruction in Vietnamese Universities: Pitfalls, Accomplishments, and Impact on Graduate Employability

This chapter explores the implementation of English as the medium of instruction (EMI) in Vietnamese universities. Ten teachers and twenty-two final-year students of two EMI programs at a well-established university are interviewed to investigate the ways in which English is used in the classrooms and its impacts on teaching and learning. The results show that the deployment of EMI in these programs creates various difficulties for both teachers and students. From the part of the teachers, it requires not only high English competence but also innovative pedagogical skills that are not necessarily familiar to all EMI teachers, resulting in lowered teaching quality. For students, the language barriers, the long-standing question-supressing teaching culture, and the mismatch between new academic expectations and students’ learning habits cause comprehension uncertainty and learning tensions which affect the development of their human capital and social capital. Despite the challenges in the implementation, findings unfold that students have improved their English proficiency from the first to the final year and benefited from the access to high-calibre disciplinary knowledge from multicultural perspectives delivered by both local and foreign teachers. These contribute to enhancing their graduate employability. The study is anchored at the intersection of language of instruction, internationalisation at home, and employability. The main findings are discussed in the light of Vietnamese socio-cultural conditions as well as institutional arrangements for the EMI programs.