ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on a study which explores the implementation of English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education in Vietnam, a nation with a population of over 95 million and 54 different ethnic groups. EMI is “the use of the English language to teach academic subjects in countries or jurisdictions where the first language of the majority of the population is not English”. Adoption of EMI at Asian higher education institutions (HEIs) is a fashionable policy. Asian HEIs have reshaped their education policies to internationalize, attract international students, and enhance their reputations in the international arena. English was not used in Vietnam before the Second World War. During the period 1954–1975, English was widely promoted in the southern Vietnam. First introduced in Vietnam in the 1990s, EMI has gradually come to be considered by the government as a way to achieve educational, political, and socioeconomic goals.