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TEACHING DISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE THROUGH ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review in this study discusses the use of EMI in the world including the countries in Europe, the countries in the East and Southeast Asia, and Vietnam at the macro-level (national policy), meso-level (university document) and the micro-level (actual stakeholders).

2.1. Experiences of EMI in the world

2.1.1. English-medium teaching in European higher education

According to Coleman (2006), English is becoming the language of higher education in the global context since globalization influences both language use and the economics of higher education. English emerges as a world language to be used in economic, political and strategic alliances, through scientific, technological and cultural cooperation, and through mass media and in many other areas. The reason for the use of EMI in higher institutions has been due to the fact that there is an urgent need to teach courses and programs in content and language integrating learning (CLIL), internationalization,

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student exchanges, teaching and researching materials, staff mobility, graduate mobility and the markets in international students.

2.1.2. Experiences of EMI in Asian Countries

Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Hongkong, China and South Korea are the countries where EMI is currently developed strongly (Kirkpatrick, 2017). EMI policy in Malaysia has been introduced and implemented at one public university in Malaysia at three levels: the macro-level (national policy), the meso-level (university documents), and the micro-level (actual stakeholders). It was found that there was no explicit reference to EMI policy as such in any of the documents. At the national level, the current National Higher Education Action Plan makes no explicit statement about the policy of medium of instruction education. The document notes that the use of English is to be encouraged, especially in science, mathematics and technical subjects and urges universities to strengthen their students’ English proficiency to meet ‘the goals for a quality workforce needed by the country, and for the internationalization of the universities. At the meso-level, university documents indicate the policy on language instruction in teaching and learning. The policy also states that when there are international students in the classroom, EMI becomes the priority.

In the Philippines, there are about 90 private universities and they are all EMI universities. Perhaps the most prestigious university in the Philippines is The University of the Philippines at Dilman, a state university (Kirkpatrick, 2014). Japan is also developing international education. The Japanese Government has introduced the Global 30 Project to attract international students to Japan to study in one of 30 universities. The best universities in Japan are now offering degree programs in English. The aim of the Global 30 project was to attract 300,000 international students. In China, a lot of universities are offering their programs through English. Many local universities are seeking to grow their international student numbers by increasing their EMI programs. In Hong Kong, the government’s aim is for its citizens to be trilingual (in Cantonese, Putonghua and English) and biliterate (in Chinese and English). This praiseworthy policy, however, is undermined by the fact that six of the eight government-funded universities are English medium. According to Byun, Chu, Kim, Park, Kim, and Jung (2011), in South Korea, the EMI policy for universities went into effect in early 2000. Since then, EMI policy has a great effect on teaching, learning and other aspects of tertiary education. The outcome evolves and the prospect for EMI policy to get the results of internationalization is still a long way ahead.

2.2. Experiences of EMI in Vietnam

Since the Doi Moi (renovation) changes in state policy in 1986, Vietnam has opened up its economy to the world and developed relationships particularly with the

West. English language teaching and learning has gained in status with much impact on language planning and policy. As English becomes increasingly prominent, there has been the need for language proficiency, resulting in a great number of programmes with EMI (Dang, Nguyen, & Le, 2013). EMI programs have been developed in many universities in Vietnam which come in existence along with other Asian higher institutions where EMI programs are being implemented (Nguyen, Walkinshaw, & Pham, 2017). With the purpose to increase their income, universities in developing economies including Vietnam adopt strategies to improve educational quality to attract local and international students, enhance institutional ranking and regional and global competitiveness. These strategies consist of internationalising education and developing partnerships with high-ranking universities in the advanced countries, particularly those in English-speaking countries (Nguyen, Hamid, & Moni, 2016). Therefore, the reasons for EMI development in Vietnam are also related to content and language integrating learning (CLIL), internationalization, student exchanges, teaching and researching materials, staff mobility, graduate mobility and the markets in international students. The typical example is the case of the International University - Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (IU-VNU HCMC). Its prominent features of teaching and researching through the implementation of EMI make it a very successful model of EMI.

Introducing EMI has been a key element of these strategies. IU-VNU-HCM, one of the seven member universities of VNU-HCM, was established in December 2003 by the decree signed by the Prime Minister to be a platform to promote the reform of higher education in Vietnam. According to Decision No. 260/2003/QD-TTg, IU was set up to become the first public university in Vietnam that uses English as the primary language in teaching, studying and researching. The focus has been on offering academic majors that are aligned with the growing demand for human resources in such fields as economics, management, science, and technology. IU has over 7,000 students, 170 faculties and 211 staff members as of March 2018 (https://www.hcmiu.edu.vn/language/en-US/Dai-hoc-Quoc-te-International-University). IU-VNU HCMC is now on the path of integration at the macro-level, the meso-level and the micro-level with the countries having advanced education. To achieve this goal, the EMI policy including the curricula of IU must be recognized in the region and in the world. This requires that IU should implement the learning and the practice simultaneously in the process of constant construction and adjustment of the training programs.

In terms of training, the departments and the schools in IU have continuously referred to the training programs of the partner universities to develop their own programs to meet the international standards of training and to be consistent with the work environment, the needs of enterprises and Vietnamese society. During the operation, IU organizes regular surveys to consult learners and industries, referring to the updated programs to adjust the

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curricula and develop new training programs to meet the changing needs of reality. IU has so far offered the education of disciplines recognized by the partner universities as shown in Table 1:

Table 1: The list of training programs with IU degrees

No. Major Number of

credits Accredited by

Bachelor’s degree 1 Information

Technology 143 Binghamton University, Rutgers University,

University of Nottingham, University of the West of England, University of Auckland

2 Business

Administration 138 University of Houston, University of Nottingham, University of the West of England, Auckland University of Technology, University of New South Wales

3 Biotechnology 140 Binghamton University, University of Nottingham, University of the West of England

4 Electronic Engineering &

Telecommunications

144 Binghamton University, Rutgers University, University of Nottingham, University of the West of England, University of Auckland, University of New South Wales, Asian Institute of Technology

5 Industrial Systems

Engineering 143 Binghamton University, Rutgers University 6 Biomedical

Engineering 144

7 Aquatic Resources

Management 138

8 Food Technology 139

9 Banking & Finance 138 University of Houston, University of Nottingham, University of the West of England, Auckland University of Technology, University of New South Wales

10 Civil Engineering 142 11 Financial Engineering

& Risk Management 141

12 Biochemistry 138

13 Control Engineering

& Automation 144 14 Logistics & Supply

Chain Management 139 Reutlingen University Master’s degree

15 Business

Administration 50 University of Hawaii at Manoa, North-eastern University

16 Biotechnology 45

17 Information Technology Management

50

18 Electronic

Engineering 45

19 Industrial Systems

Engineering 45 Munich University

20 Biomedical

Engineering 45

21 Applied mathematics 45 (research methodology 1)

42 (research methodology 2) Doctoral degree

22 Biotechnology 135

(Report from the Office of Academic Affairs, IU– VNU HCMC)

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. How does the application of EMI at IU affect and lecturers and students in teaching and learning disciplinary knowledge?

2. Do lecturers receive enough training and professional development to help them in teaching their content subjects through EMI?

3. What are the beliefs of lecturers and students to EMI?