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Article published In: English-medium instruction: Different stakeholders and conflicting interests
Edited by Robert Wilkinson and René Gabriëls
[Journal of English-Medium Instruction 3:1] 2024
► pp. 68–90

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The tension between English-medium instruction and Vietnamese-medium instruction in higher education

A graduate retrospect

ORCiD logo with link | The Education University of Hong Kong
ORCiD logo with link | International University, Vietnam National University, HCMC
ORCiD logo with link | Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Published online: 19 December 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jemi.23003.tan
Abstract
In Vietnam, English-medium instruction (EMI) has been implemented in parallel with Vietnamese-medium instruction (VMI) in higher education, partly to help remedy its shortcomings. However, only economically advantaged students can access EMI, which suggests EMI graduates may accrue discrepant advantages compared to VMI graduates. Research has, nonetheless, not explored the effects on these stakeholders. Hence, to partially address the gap, this study explores EMI in information technology (IT). Using the theoretical concepts of parity, distribution, and self-amplifying loop, this study draws on eight in-depth semi-structured interviews with EMI and VMI graduates. Thematic analysis of the data reveals disparities in advantages ensuing from EMI and VMI including English skills and Anglo-American acculturation, access to English-speaking jobs at different rates, and divergent professional opportunities. These disparities are accounted for by the disciplinary paradigm of IT and the unevenly distributed resources between EMI and VMI and are then enlarged by self-amplifying loops. In this process, EMI in IT constitutes a double accelerator and therefore enables EMI graduates to gain the foregoing advantages by a larger margin and VMI graduates to do so but at a slower rate. The study recommends addressing this widening gap through the formation and implementation of VMI- and EMI-related policies at all levels.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • EMI in Vietnamese HE: An overview
  • Conceptual framework
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Interviews
    • Analysis
  • Findings
    • Disparities ensuing from EMI and VMI
    • Factors behind disparities
      • Disciplinary paradigm of IT and corresponding relevance of E(MI) and V(MI)
      • Uneven distribution of access to and possession of resources
  • Discussion
    • E(MI) in IT: From double barrier to double accelerator
    • Self-amplifying loops of uneven resource distribution between EMI and VMI
    • Enlarged opportunity structures and disparities: Widening the chasm
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
References (37)
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