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EMI programmes in Vietnamese higher education: a case study of translanguaging practices for inclusive education

  • Phuong Le Hoang Ngo ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: August 6, 2024
Journal of English as a Lingua Franca
From the journal Journal of English as a Lingua Franca Volume 13 Issue 1

Abstract

Previous studies have discussed stakeholders’ perceptions of using first language in English-medium instruction (EMI), but only a few have examined classroom practices in Vietnam. Against this backdrop, this article focuses on lecturers’ translanguaging practices in an EMI programme where all the lecturers and students were Vietnamese. More specifically, it employs the conceptual framework of ROAD-MAPPING, proposed by Dafouz and Smit (“The ROAD-MAPPING framework: Taking stock and paving future directions for English-medium research”, in Emma Dafouz and Ute Smit (eds.), Researching English-medium higher education: Diverse applications and critical evaluations of the ROAD-MAPPING framework, 1–19. London: Routledge, 2016), to see if there was substantial evidence of a constructive co-existence between English and Vietnamese – the first language – in this EMI programme. The findings suggest that under the lecturers’ and students’ agency, the two languages were distributed across various domains of classroom practices to benefit students’ learning of content knowledge. In teacher talk, English and Vietnamese have different functions to support the process of knowledge co-construction. The study implies that the current monolingual orientation promoted in many top-down EMI policies should be reconsidered, given the linguistic diversity of higher education settings. In other words, EMI should be promoted as an educational environment where students can access their linguistic repertoires and develop their academic knowledge bi/multilingually. Translanguaging, therefore, should be acknowledged as an inclusive pedagogical practice.

Tóm tắt

Những nghiên cứu trước đây đã thảo luận về nhận thức của các bên liên quan đối với việc sử dụng tiếng mẹ đẻ trong các chương trình giảng dạy bằng Tiếng Anh (EMI), nhưng chỉ có một số ít nghiên cứu xem xét vấn đề này tại các lớp học tại Việt Nam. Bài báo này tập trung vào việc thực hành chuyển đổi ngôn ngữ, hay sử dụng ngữ tích hợp (translanguaging) của giảng viên trong một chương trình EMI, nơi tất cả giảng viên và sinh viên đều là người Việt Nam. Cụ thể hơn, nghiên cứu sử dụng khung lý thuyết ROAD-MAPPING, được đề xuất bởi Dafouz và Smit (“The ROAD-MAPPING framework: Taking stock and paving future directions for English-medium research”, in Emma Dafouz and Ute Smit (eds.), Researching English-medium higher education: Diverse applications and critical evaluations of the ROAD-MAPPING framework, 1–19. London: Routledge, 2016), để xem xét về vai trò và sự kết hợp của Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt trong chương trình EMI này. Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy giảng viên và sinh viên sử dụng kết hợp hai ngôn ngữ này ở các khía cạnh khác nhau của lớp học, từ đó đảm bảo việc học kiến thức chuyên ngành của sinh viên được hiệu quả. Đối với bài giảng của giáo viên, Tiếng Anh và Tiếng Việt đảm nhận các chức năng khác nhau để hỗ trợ quá trình xây dựng kiến thức cho người học. Từ kết quả của nghiên cứu này, cần xem xét lại định hướng đơn ngữ hiện nay được thúc đẩy trong nhiều chính sách EMI, đặc biệt trong bối cảnh đa ngôn ngữ của các cơ sở giáo dục đại học. Nói cách khác, các chương trình giảng dạy bằng tiếng Anh nên được thúc đẩy như một môi trường giáo dục nơi sinh viên có thể sử dụng các ngôn ngữ của họ và phát triển kiến thức học thuật theo hướng song ngữ/đa ngữ. Do đó, chuyển đổi ngôn ngữ, hay ngữ tích hợp, nên được công nhận như một chiến lược giáo dục hoà nhập cho sinh viên có năng lực ngôn ngữ khác nhau.

Keywords: case study; EMI; inclusive education; translanguaging; Vietnam
Từ khoá: EMI; giáo dục hoà nhập; nghiên cứu điển hình; ngữ tích hợp; Việt Nam
Corresponding author: Phuong Le Hoang Ngo, Faculty of English, University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Hue University, Hue, Vietnam, E-mail:

Appendix: Transcription conventions

(.) Short pause
(number) Longer pause in seconds
[text] Overlapping utterances
Italic text Utterances in Vietnamese
{ } Translation in English
? Rising intonation for question

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Published Online: 2024-08-06
Published in Print: 2024-05-27

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Introduction
  3. Introduction
  4. Articles
  5. Linguistic justice in English-medium instruction contexts: a theoretical argument
  6. The (in)justice of EMI: a critical discourse analysis of two key stakeholders’ views on the Polytechnic University of Milan court case
  7. “English is the natural language of science”: discourses and ideologies concerning EMI in two Brazilian universities
  8. English Medium Instruction or Exploitative Models of Income? International students’ experiences of EMI by default at an Australian university
  9. Our gateway is your gatekeeper: benefits and constraints of EMI for different participants in Japanese ELF contexts
  10. Enhancing equity in South Korean EMI higher education through translanguaging
  11. Impact of English proficiency and self-efficacy on EMI content learning: a longitudinal study in Taiwan
  12. EMI programmes in Vietnamese higher education: a case study of translanguaging practices for inclusive education
  13. Book Reviews
  14. Cogo, Alessia, Graham Crookes and Sávio Siqueira: English for a Critical Mind: Language Pedagogy for Social Justice
  15. Mocanu, Vasilica: Language Learning in Study Abroad: Social, Cultural, and Identity-Related Factors
  16. Alves, Ubiratã Kickhöfel & Jeniffer Imaregna Alcantara de Albuquerque: Second language pronunciation: Different approaches to teaching and training (Studies on Language Acquisition 64)
  17. Corrigendum
  18. Corrigendum to: Self-presentation as an ELF user in social media: an analysis of Japanese young adults’ online language practices
https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2024-2008
Keywords for this article
case study; EMI; inclusive education; translanguaging; Vietnam

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Introduction
  3. Introduction
  4. Articles
  5. Linguistic justice in English-medium instruction contexts: a theoretical argument
  6. The (in)justice of EMI: a critical discourse analysis of two key stakeholders’ views on the Polytechnic University of Milan court case
  7. “English is the natural language of science”: discourses and ideologies concerning EMI in two Brazilian universities
  8. English Medium Instruction or Exploitative Models of Income? International students’ experiences of EMI by default at an Australian university
  9. Our gateway is your gatekeeper: benefits and constraints of EMI for different participants in Japanese ELF contexts
  10. Enhancing equity in South Korean EMI higher education through translanguaging
  11. Impact of English proficiency and self-efficacy on EMI content learning: a longitudinal study in Taiwan
  12. EMI programmes in Vietnamese higher education: a case study of translanguaging practices for inclusive education
  13. Book Reviews
  14. Cogo, Alessia, Graham Crookes and Sávio Siqueira: English for a Critical Mind: Language Pedagogy for Social Justice
  15. Mocanu, Vasilica: Language Learning in Study Abroad: Social, Cultural, and Identity-Related Factors
  16. Alves, Ubiratã Kickhöfel & Jeniffer Imaregna Alcantara de Albuquerque: Second language pronunciation: Different approaches to teaching and training (Studies on Language Acquisition 64)
  17. Corrigendum
  18. Corrigendum to: Self-presentation as an ELF user in social media: an analysis of Japanese young adults’ online language practices
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