tailieunhanh - The vietnamese agenda of adopting english as a medium of instruction

This paper aims to analyse the literature to explore the various agendas (social, economic, political, and educational) that underlie the EMI expansion. It examines the world literature as a framework of reference for analysing the Vietnamese case. Hopefully, the paper will provide policymakers and implementers insights into the EMI processes to maximise the benefits and avoid pitfalls. | THE VIETNAMESE AGENDA OF ADOPTING ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION Vu Thi Thanh Nha* The Faculty of English, VNU University of Languages and International Studies, Pham Van Dong, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam Received 27 October 2016 Revised 15 May 2017; Accepted 18 May 2017 Abstract: English as a medium of instruction has been recently adopted in Vietnam's educational system. This gives rise to a concern as why a Vietnamese-speaking country decided to endorse EMI programs as one of its critical educational reforms. This paper aims to analyse the literature to explore the various agendas (social, economic, political, and educational) that underlie the EMI expansion. It examines the world literature as a framework of reference for analysing the Vietnamese case. Hopefully, the paper will provide policymakers and implementers insights into the EMI processes to maximise the benefits and avoid pitfalls. Keywords: English as a medium of instruction (EMI), agenda, Vietnam, policy 1. Introduction It is now a truism to state that English is spreading rapidly around the world. English is not limited to communication within Englishspeaking nations. Speakers of English as a first, second and foreign language have increased from billion in 2003 to billion in 2006 (Crystal, 2006). In China alone, the number of bilingual speakers (English and Chinese) has increased to 200-500 million in 2009 (Crystal, 2009, as cited in Cheng 2012). With this increasingly important role of English in economic development and international communications, it is common that English is used as a medium of instruction in many nonnative English speaking (NNES) contexts where the majority of the population speak a local language (Hamid, Nguyen, & Baldauf Jr, 2013; Kirkpatrick, 2012a; Wilkinson, 2012). Many governments in these contexts, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, have legislated English in their educational systems, with a naïve * Tel.: 84-947273006 Email: nhavtt@ belief that this