Vietnamese higher education: a study on the impacts of cultural context on lecturer-student interaction in English-Medium Instruction (EMI) classrooms

The golobalization of economics and internationalization in higher education have led to a geat change and progress in which the implementation of English-Medium Instruction (EMI) is a remarkable phenomenon resulting a growing body of research in the related field. However, there remains a dearth of research into the impacts of cultural context on classroom interaction, as research mainly focuses on the EMI policy, teacher and students' challenges and experiences. Literature on EMI also demonstrates a general research priority of EMI in higher education has been placed in issues of EMI in different countries and regions from linguistic perspective and pedagogical perspective, but limited research has been conducted from the cultural perspective. Within the Confucius Heritage Cultural Circle, Vietnam is selected for this study because few studies to date are carried out in how EMI is culturally integrated to teaching and learning in the higher education sector of Vietnam. This research reports the investigation on cultural interactions between students and two cohorts of local and international lecturers in the EMI context at the Vietnamese tertiary level. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are employed in this study. The research findings show EMI lecturers in Vietnamese universities have diverse cultural backgrounds, from the Anglophone countries to European regions and other countries in addition to different places in Vietnam. Consequently, they use their preferred teaching methods to Vietnamese EMI classrooms and interacted with local students. Vietnamese EMI students are taught by the domestic teachers who shared the same cultural values. As a result, the cultural difference in teaching and learning activities provided Vietnamese students with unpredictable benefits and rich intercultural experiences . The study has proposed a new model of EMI Engagement-Management-Improvement to enhance EMI in Vietnam. The recommendation derived from the current studies is widening the perspectives how to improve EMI in higher education in Vietnam and other Asian countries.