English-medium instruction in Vietnam: Issues of English language proficiency and a way forward Dr Ian Walkinshaw School of Humanities, Languages & Social Science SEAMEO RETRAC TESOL conference, Griffith University Ho Chi Minh City, 9-10 August 2018
Contents: I. The state of English-medium instruction in Vietnam higher education II. Language support for EMI courses III. Supplementing English with other linguistic resources
EMI in Asia-Pacific higher education 8000 EMI courses globally 53% of international students (IS) worldwide come from Asia 84 million domestic students in Asian institutions 13% China increase in IS annually since 2003 25% Malaysia increase in IS 2010-2015 180,000 Japan IS enrolments in 2014 Sources: Chien & Chapman, 2014; IEAA, 2015; Mitchell, 2016; OECD, 2015
I. The state of English- medium instruction in Vietnam higher education
EMI in Vietnam higher education How many programs in Vietnam’s universities are delivered through English? a. 200 b. 300 c. 400
Offshore programs: Overseas university delivers accredited program at local university, students receive overseas degree Foreign programs
Franchise programs: Overseas accredited program Types of EMI program: Foreign delivered locally under license, students receive local degree Foreign programs
‘High Quality’ programs: Locally- designed/delivered programs drawing on overseas curriculum/content, students receive local degree Domestic programs
English language proficiency: The elephant in the (class)room • Students with inadequate English language proficiency: Fail to improve English • • Fail to understand course content • Create extra burden for academics on EMI courses
Content teachers need to be well- equipped to deliver the disciplinary knowledge in English and support students’ ELP development. (H. T. Nguyen, 2018) Not an expert! Not a fan! But… Not an octopus!
Since content teachers are either uninterested in language development or do not have the time and/or expertise to deal with language, mere exposure to content-teaching input does not promote language development. At the same time, since inadequate language proficiency is an issue for teachers as well as students, even content learning is often affected by such instruction. Thus, instead of the highly desirable double gain one might expect from bilingual programs, EMI may lead to a double loss. (Hamid, Nguyen & Baldauf 2013, p. 10)
II. Language support for EMI courses UPSKIL TALK LEARN L
TALK 1. Individual academic writing consultations Specialist Language tutor One-to-one sessions Students bring in draft assessment items Feedback on structure, style, grammar Learner-driven – individual students’ requirements Sources: Chanock, 2002; Walkinshaw, Milford & Freeman, 2015; Fenton-Smith, Humphreys, Walkinshaw, Michael & Lobo, 2015
LEAR N 2. Embedded language tutorials for discipline EMI courses Added on to specific courses Targets language/writing requirements of course’s assessment items Joint workshop / consultation Source: Fenton-Smith & Humphreys, 2015
UPSKIL L 3. Discipline-specific academic skills course - For credit - Semester-long - Run along with discipline courses - Just for the discipline Ss are studying Sources: Fenton-Smith, Humphreys & Walkinshaw, 2018; Fenton-Smith, Humphreys, Walkinshaw, Michael & Lobo, 2015
Discipline-specific academic skills course (81%) Individual consultations (92.7%) Embedded language tutorials (90.5%) Source: Fenton-Smith & Humphreys, 2015
III. Supplementing English with other linguistic resources
Multilingual people use all their linguistic resources as required.
First language: Deficiency? Interference? Resource? TRANSLANGUAGING (across-language action)
Translanguaging means: Translanguaging refers to a pedagogic theory that involves students’ learning of two languages through a process of deep cognitive bilingual engagement (Garcia & Wei 2014, p. 64).
Translanguaging means: Translanguaging refers to a pedagogic theory that involves students’ learning of two languages through a process of deep cognitive bilingual engagement (Garcia & Wei 2014, p. 64). A number of actions or steps taken over time to achieve a particular goal.
Translanguaging means: Translanguaging refers to a pedagogic theory that involves students’ learning of two languages through a process of deep cognitive bilingual engagement (Garcia & Wei 2014, p. 64). The mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses
Translanguaging means: Translanguaging refers to a pedagogic theory that involves students’ learning of two languages through a process of deep cognitive bilingual engagement (Garcia & Wei 2014, p. 64). Writing and/or speaking two languages
Translanguaging means: Translanguaging refers to a pedagogic theory that involves students’ learning of two languages through a process of deep cognitive bilingual engagement (Garcia & Wei 2014, p. 64). Participation or involvement in an activity
Clip created by CEC Crisfield Educational Consulting, 2017. Used for educational purposes only. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNOtmn2UTzI
Translanguaging for clarification: Ask questions Answer questions Give explanations Clarify meanings
Teacher: Myth number one? (10) who can tell me (.) myth number one (.) OK (.) [student]? Student: dạ thưa cô nói bằng tiếng Việt được không cô? {can I speak Vietnamese?} Teacher: It depends on you (.) Student: dạ thưa cô là (.) cái ah ah myth đầu tiên là (.) Massey nói là (.) sự sự di cư là ah nguyên nhân của sự ah các nền kinh tế ah migration ah is caused by ah lack of economic developments (.) in migrants’ ah home countries (Classroom observation, Ngo 2018)
Translanguaging to process concepts or information: INPUT > PROCESSING > OUTPUT ‘To read and discuss a topic in one language, and then to write about it in another language, means that the subject matter has to be processed and “digested” ’ (Baker 2011, p. 289).
A: Vietnamese helps us to understand the lesson in depth. B: Both languages have equal roles. We can’t [do without] either of them. A: Yes, without Vietnamese I would understand nothing. B: Yeah. Both of them are needed. If the lesson is 70% in English and 30% in Vietnamese, we can get it, right? (Comment from focus group, Ngo 2018)
Translanguaging for translation/interpretation skills: Text in English? Translate it into Vietnamese Text in Vietnamese? Translate it into English Word-for-word or versioning Written or spoken
English has some terms or concepts that we haven’t got equivalent terms or concepts in Vietnamese , especially those disciplinary ones. Or there are some topics that just one English word can express the full meaning , but it will take much time to express them in Vietnamese . (Focus group participant, Ngo 2018)
TEST YOUR MEMORY (and win a prize!) How many EMI courses are taught globally? 8,000 Sydney University runs a franchise EMI program with which Vietnam university? Hue University Griffith University’s individual academic writing consultation is called what? English What does the ‘trans’ in ‘translanguaging’ mean? HELP Across What is the missing word in the middle? ‘INPUT > ………….. > OUTPUT’ Proces s
Read more about EMI in Vietnam: Ngo, Phuong Le Hoang (2018). The roles of English and Vietnamese in English-medium instruction (EMI) programs. Paper presented at the 11th English as a Lingua Franca Conference, King’s College London, UK, 4-7 July 2018. Nguyen, Huong Thu, Walkinshaw, Ian, & Pham, Hoa Hiep. (2017). EMI programs in a Vietnamese university: Language, pedagogy and policy issues. In B. Fenton-Smith, P. Humphreys, & I. Walkinshaw (Eds.) English as a medium of instruction in higher education in Asia-Pacific: Issues and challenges. Dordrecht: Springer. Nguyen, Huong Thu. (2018). English-medium instruction management: The missing piece of the internationalization puzzle of Vietnamese higher education. In L. T. Tran & S. Marginson (Eds.), Internationalisation in Vietnamese higher education (pp. 119-137). Dordrecht: Springer International Publishing.
Read more about translanguaging: García O., Wei L. (2014) Translanguaging and Education. In: Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education (pp. 63-77). Palgrave Macmillan, London Lewis, G., Jones, B. & Baker, C. (2013).100 Bilingual lessons: Distributing two languages in classrooms. In C. Abello-Contesse, P. M. Chandler, M. D. López-Jiménez, R. Chacón-Beltrán (Eds.), Bilingual and Multilingual Education in the 21st Century: Building on Experience (pp. 107). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
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