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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
ĐỖ THỊ THANH THƯ
A STUDY ON PHYSICS STUDENTS’ CHALLENGES AND THEIR
COPING STRATEGIES ON AN ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF
INSTRUCTION (EMI) PROGRAM AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
SCIENCE, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
(Nghiên cứu về những khó khăn và biện pháp khắc phục
của sinh viên khoa Vật lý khi theo học khóa học chu ên ngành gi ng
ng ti ng nh t i trường Đ i học Khoa học Tự nhiên,
Đ i học Quốc gia Hà Nội)
M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English teaching methodology
Code: 60140111
Ha Noi, November 2016
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
ĐỖ THỊ THANH THƯ
A STUDY ON PHYSICS STUDENTS’ CHALLENGES AND THEIR
COPING STRATEGIES ON AN ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF
INSTRUCTION (EMI) PROGRAM AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF
SCIENCE, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
(Nghiên cứu về những khó khăn và biện pháp khắc phục
của sinh viên khoa Vật lý khi theo học khóa học chu ên ngành gi ng
ng ti ng nh t i trường Đ i học Khoa học Tự nhiên,
Đ i học Quốc gia Hà Nội)
(M.A THESIS)
Field : English teaching methodology
Code : 60140111
Supervisor : Dr. Vu Thi Thanh Nha
Ha Noi, November 2016
i
DECLARATION
I hereby certify that this thesis is entirely my own work. I have provided
fully documented references to the other‟s work. The material in this thesis has not
been submitted for assessment in any other formal course. I also accept all the
requirements of University of Languages and International Studies relating to the
retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of some people, and in
some ways, I would like to thank everyone who has taught me, inspired me,
challenged me, and supported me throughout the realization of this thesis.
I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Dr. Vu
Thi Thanh Nha, for her whole-hearted assistance, encouragement as well as the
profound guidance she gave me while I was doing my research.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all lecturers
in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International
Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lectures which
have inspired me to conduct this thesis.
Last but not least, I would also like to express my thanks to students at
Hanoi University of Science, VNU for their willingness to participate in the
research. Without their help, this project could not be fulfilled.
Hanoi, November, 2016
Do Thi Thanh Thu
iii
ABSTRACT
English-medium instruction (EMI) has been a great interest to language and
language policy researchers in an era of globalization and internationalization. In
spite of recognising implemental problems and constraints, EMI has been widely
introduced into countries where English is not the native language.
This paper reported the findings of the study that aimed at identifying
second-year physics students‟ challenges and their coping strategies when they
studied the EMI program. Two issues, hence, are investigated: (1) what
challenges the learners face and (2) what are their coping strategies in the
implementation of EMI in Vietnam. The analysis of empirical data garnered from
questionnaires and interviews reveals that the students faced such serious
challenges as: students‟ English ability and comprehending lectures. Their common
strategies were group work, extensive reading, lecture attendance, completing
assigned work and memorization. Based on these findings, suggestions are made
for enhancing the success of similar programs.
iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATION TERMS
HUS : Hanoi University of Science
VNU : Vietnam National University
CBI : Content-based Instruction
CLIL : Content and Language Integrated Learning
L1 : First Language
L2 : Second language
MOET : The Ministry of Education and Training
ELT : English language teaching
EMI : English as the Medium of Instruction
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ............................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT..............................................................................ii
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATION TERMS............................................................iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... v
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.............................................................vii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION................................................................ 1
I.1. Rationale.................................................................................................. 1
I.2. Aims of the study ..................................................................................... 2
I.3. Research questions................................................................................... 2
I.4. Scope of the study.................................................................................... 2
I.5. Method of the study ................................................................................. 2
I.6. Design of the study .................................................................................. 3
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................... 4
II.1. The EMI context..................................................................................... 4
II.1.1. Context of EMI in the world ............................................................ 4
II.1.2. Context of EMI in Vietnam.............................................................. 5
II.2. Challenges facing EMI students.............................................................. 8
II.3. Previous studies on coping strategies in multilingual higher education ....... 14
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY.......................................................... 18
III.1. Context of the study............................................................................. 18
III.2. Research questions .............................................................................. 19
III.3. The study............................................................................................. 19
III.3.1. Participants................................................................................... 19
III.3.2. Data collection instruments........................................................... 19
III.3.3. Data collection procedure ............................................................. 21
vi
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS........................................................................ 23
IV.1. The findings of questionnaire .............................................................. 23
IV.1.1. Students‟ challenges ..................................................................... 24
IV.1.2. Students‟ coping strategies ........................................................... 26
IV.2. The findings of interview .................................................................... 27
IV.2.1. Students‟ challenges ..................................................................... 27
IV.2.2. Students‟ coping strategies ........................................................... 28
CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ............................... 32
V.1. Discussion of key findings.................................................................... 32
V.2. Summary of key findings...................................................................... 35
V.3. Implications.......................................................................................... 35
V.4. Limitations ........................................................................................... 35
V.5. Suggestions for further research ........................................................... 36
REFERENCES........................................................................................... 37
APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………45
vii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 1: Language-in- Education Policy Goals............................................. 7
Table 2: Review Findings Regarding the Students‟Language Proficiencies........ 8
Table 3: Review Findings Relating to Academic EMI Situation................. 11
Table 4: Review Findings Relating to EMI support.................................... 12
Table 5: Students‟ challenges ..................................................................... 25
Table 6: Students‟ coping strategies and suggestions for teachers .............. 26
Figure 1: The students‟ purposes for learning English ................................. 23
Figure 2: Areas of using English students often face challenges .................. 25
1
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
I.1. Rationale
Globalization and internationalization, combined with the rapid growth of
the internet, have resulted in the spread of English worldwide. Strongly
influenced by this phenomenon, many Asian countries, where English is not
officially used, have adopted diverse educational policies that aim to support
students in acquiring higher levels of English proficiency and preparing them for
better future jobs. While Content-based Instruction (CBI) or Content and
Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) refers to an approach where language
teaching is organized around the informational content rather than a linguistic
syllabus (Richards & Rodgers, 2001), EMI is mostly used for educational
programs at a tertiary level where professional knowledge is taught through
English with the purpose of enhancing students‟ knowledge-specific ability as
well as their English (Coleman, 2006).
In Vietnam, English is considered as an indispensable subject in all
universities‟ curriculum. There is a rapidly growing tendency for English to be
adopted as the medium of instruction, even when a majority of the population
speaks a local language. However, when EMI courses have expanded, they do
not get immediate success. At Hanoi University of Science (hereafter HUS),
English is a compulsory subject for all students of all faculties. EMI is
considered a preferable program to make learners understood in a workplace
context, or have an advantageous job over the others.
For the second-year physics students, they have one year to be familiar
with the ways of studying at university. Learners try their best to improve their
English as well as the knowledge of subjects; however, not all students have
succeeded. The questions of the ways the students choose to overcome are left
unanswered in this context. There have been not much attempts in investigating
this issue. Hence, it is greatly important to research the matter intensively.
2
Hopefully, the findings of this research could contribute to understand
more about learners, to enhance teaching and learning EMI program at the
institution, and to lay a foundation for subsequent research. The following
sections will briefly describe the aim of study, research questions, its scope,
method and the outline of the thesis.
I.2. Aims of the study
The study aimed to investigate the EMI program, especially related to the
learners. It identified strategies that Vietnamese students used in order to deal
with challenges they faced. Based on these findings, recommendations to
promote learners‟ proficiency and improve the implementation of EMI policies
are made.
I.3. Research questions
In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following research
questions are raised in the study:
1. What are Physics students‟ challenges in taking an EMI program?
2. What coping strategies have they been taking?
I.4. Scope of the study
Teaching and learning a new EMI program in Vietnam are broad topics,
and they cannot be wholly discussed within the framework of this paper. Thus,
this minor thesis attempted to investigate only the challenges which students
faced and their coping strategies in the implementation of EMI. The subjects of
the study included thirteen Physics students in a class at the Department of
International Standard Program (ISP) at Hanoi University of Science (HUS)
who were not English majored but learning the EMI program, therefore, the
findings of this study might not be generalized to all Vietnamese students.
I.5. Method of the study
This study employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods in
3
order to get a more detailed and comprehensive picture about what was
investigated. Questionnaires and interviews were needed to collect information
on students‟ difficulties and their strategies on how to learn successfully in the
content and language integrated learning program.
I.6. Design of the study
This study is composed of five following parts, outlined as follows:
Chapter I: Introduction presents the background, aims, research
questions, the significance, the scope, and the design of the study.
Chapter II: Literature review, conceptualizes the framework of the study
through the discussion of issues and ideas on theories of learners‟ challenges in
the implementation of EMI.
Chapter III: Methodology, presents the context, the methodology used in
this study including the context, the subject, the data collection instruments, data
collection procedure, and data analysis.
Chapter IV: Findings consists of a comprehensive analysis of the data.
Chapter V: Discussions and Conclusion offers a discussion and a
summary of the key findings, recommendations, limitations, and future
directions for further study.
In summary, this chapter has briefly introduced the issue this thesis will
address, the study it was based on, and the outline summary of the thesis. The
following chapter will review the ELT literature that provides theoretical
underpinnings for the study and address EMI students‟ challenges and coping
strategies.
4
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
The previous chapter has provided the overview of the thesis, its aims
and structure. In this chapter, the researcher will present some theoretical
backgrounds that necessitate the realization of this research and provide the
related literature for the study.
II.1. The EMI context
In this section, the researcher begins by analyzing the context of EMI in
the world and in Vietnam.
II.1.1. Context of EMI in the world
In reality, the concept of EMI is not new in the world but not easy to define
(Manh, 2012). A review of literature indicates that EMI has been called different
names such as content and language integrated learning (CLIL), content-based
teaching (CTB), immersion or language as a medium of instruction. EMI means
learners acquire both the subject content and target language in a natural setting
(Sert, 2008).
Numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using
a non-native language to instruct at tertiary level in different contexts at the
micro level. Specifically, researchers aim to explore students‟ challenges and
their coping strategies about EMI. For example, in Europe, Airey & Linder
(2006) concern about students‟ experience of learning university physics in
Sweden. In Africa, a recent case study by Marie (2013) about students‟ strategies
that multilingual university students in Rwanda use in order to deal with
complex academic materials. Findings reveal that students have multiple coping
strategies that enable them to complete academic tasks given through the
medium of English. Regarding Asian contexts, many reports on the
implementation of EMIs reflect leaners‟ challenges and their ways to overcome
the situations. For example, Williams (2015) has a systematic review of English
Medium Instruction (EMI) and offers learners‟ challenges in the South Korean
5
higher education context. In Taiwanese context, Chang (2010) and Wu (2006)
reveal that students encounter difficulties understanding the subject content and
expressing opinions fluently.
It can be concluded from the above previous studies that to implement
EMI successfully, the role of implementers (school managers, students, and
teachers) and community attitudes are essential. Also, EMI has a vast influence
on aspects of life as it determines who will participate in power and wealth (Tsui
& Tollefson, 2004). Each government should, therefore, be cautious of planning
and implementing language policy in general and language in education policy
in particular as the policy made will profoundly impact on the development, the
stability, the identity and justice of the nation.
The next section examines the context of Vietnam with reference to its
agendas to adopt EMI in order to clarify the broader policy landscape within
which the study occurs.
II.1.2. Context of EMI in Vietnam
Regarding the Vietnamese context, although the idea of using EMI at
tertiary level is considered a timely and wise decision of the government and the
Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) as a response to the globalization
and regionalization, its implementation is a long way off (Manh, 2012). It is a
truism that there is always a gap between an idea and putting it into operation.
However, the feasibility of this project must be considered carefully or some
aspects may have long-lasting negative consequences to the stability and
development of the country politically, socio-linguistically and economically.
Such issues as whether EMI guarantees the students‟ acquisition of both
language skills and subject contents at university levels, whether EMI imposes
impacts on the inequality among different regions, that is, mountainous versus
plain areas, whether EMI benefits a majority or a minority of people in the
6
country, whether EMI marginalizes the disadvantaged student from enjoying an
equal chance to a qualified HEI, whether EMI negatively influences the
development of the mother tongue if the future generation rejects L1 (first
language) and prefers L2 (second language) should be raised prior to the
implementation of the project.
The term of EMI is vague. As a first step, it should be clarified to reach a
convergent understanding in Vietnamese pedagogy. In fact, this notion can be
interpreted in practice different dimensions. For example, EMI may mean teaching all
subjects in the curriculum in English including physical education, military education,
Communism, Marxism, Ho Chi Minh thoughts. EMI may mean only professional
courses are taught in English and other courses are free to use Vietnamese for
instruction. In addition, EMI may mean giving lectures in English, yet students using
Vietnamese to communicate with peers or lecturers and submitting assignments in
Vietnamese. These different interpretations may bring about different results.
A number of potential difficulties have arisen when implementing the
proposal. The issues of EMI at tertiary level have, unfortunately, been totally
neglected in the literature in the local context. Almost no scientific research
on this topic in Vietnam has been published so far. It is reasonable to assume
that the implementation of any proposal should be based on firm theoretical
foundations or conceptual models which have been proved by empirical
studies rather than on subjective determination of a few top leaders.
Therefore, contextual perspectives need careful consideration. Kaplan and
Baldauf (1997; 2005) contend that the success of language -in -education
policy depends much on bottom up efforts. They also suggest these following
policy objectives to be deemed at the implementation level of language policy
in education including access, personnel, curriculum, methods and materials,
resourcing, community and evaluation, which can be summarized in the table:
7
Table 1: Language-in- Education Policy Goals
(Kaplan & Baldauf, 2005, p. 1014)
Language- in-education policy
and planning goals
Explanation
Access Policy Who learns, what, and when?
Personnel Policy Where do teachers come from and how are
they trained?
Curriculum Policy What is the objective in language teaching /
planning?
Methods and Materials Policy What methodology and what materials are
employed over what durations?
Community Policy How is everything paid for?
Resourcing Policy Who is consulted / involved?
Evaluation Policy What is the connection between assessment
on the one hand and methods and materials
that define the educational objectives on the
other?
Towards the success of meeting the aforementioned goals, Kaplan and
Baldauf (2005) propose that success “largely depends on policy decisions
related to the teachers, the courses of study and materials and the resources
to be made available” (p.1014). However, these areas are developed
differently in a particular nation “depending on how that nation‟s education
system operates” (Kaplan & Baldauf 1997, p. 217). In the light of Kaplan
and Baldauf (1997; 2005)‟s suggestions, in the following part, the article
presents the current situations and critiques the feasibility of the project in
terms of teachers and students, curriculums, and possible impacts on society.
8
Although it has been previously mentioned that the project implementation
should be based on publicized empirical or scientific studies, such evidence
is absent in the local setting. Therefore, most of the data for the argument is
drawn from mass media sources i.e. newspapers, conferences, and
government documents which are not tested empirically.
The next part of our review focuses selectively on challenges facing
students in new EMI contexts.
II.2. Challenges facing EMI students
This section will review the EMI students‟ challenges before focusing on
their coping strategies in the next section. It is stated that three areas are identified:
1) the students‟ language proficiencies; 2) the varying demands of different
academic subjects; and 3) a facilitative body which can support EMI
implementation (Byun, K., Chu, H., Kim, M., Park, I., Kim, S., & Jung, 2011).
This section presents three tables summarizing the challenges identified in the
review of Williams (2015). First, Williams summarizes the results based upon the
students‟and the instructors‟language proficiencies as the following table:
Table 2: Review Findings Regarding the Students’ Language Proficiencies
(Williams, 2015, p. 7)
Area Authors Challenges Location Methods
Language
Proficiency
Chang
(2010)
Students did not comprehend
everything as the professors‟
proficiency was insufficient.
Taiwan Mixed
Evan &
Morrison
(2011)
Initial exposure to EMI a
challenge.
Hong Kong Mixed
Hellekjær
(2010)
Grasping concepts is a challenge
in L1 and L2. Students have
difficulty in comprehension.
Germany Quantitative
Kim (2011) Students favored L1 to explain Korea Mixed
9
Area Authors Challenges Location Methods
complex material.
Students were not in favor of
EMI as it hampered depth of
learning.
Manh(2012)
70% of freshman students had
low proficiency: few lecturers
had adequate oral skills.
Vietnam Review
Mellion
(2008)
Students were not satisfied with
instructor proficiency and
wanted them to obtain a CPE
certificate as proof of
competency to teach.
Netherlands Qualitative
This seems to be a global problem in EFL and ESL contexts and it is
talked about as a challenge. This implies that globally students lack the
proficiency. As seen, this lack of proficiency has negative consequences: lack of
comprehension (Chang, 2010), and reliance on the L1 (Kim, 2011). Earlier studies
on the effects of EMI have mostly agreed that the English proficiency of students is
one of the most significant factors in determining the outcomes of EMI courses
(Stryker & Leaver, 1997; Swain & Johnson, 1997). Stryker and Leaver (1997)
suggested that CBI could be implemented effectively when the learners‟ proficiency
is above the threshold level. In particular, English proficiency is considered more
important in late immersion than in early immersion (Swain & Johnson, 1997). In
early immersion, language development takes place along with basic concept
learning. In late immersion, however, subject content learning occurs with the
improvement of Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), where a larger
cognitive capacity is required to comprehend and process abstract and complex
academic concepts (Cummins, 1984).
Studies in African and Asian countries extend the concerns to students‟
language abilities (Byun et al., 2011; Huong, 2010; Kyeyune, 2010; Manh, 2012;
10
Tsuneyoshi, 2005). Kyeyune (2010), for example, observing classroom
interactions, reports the frustrating communication failures in Ugandan
classrooms because of students‟ low English proficiency.
Several studies conducted in Korean settings also presented similar
results. Kang (2005) examined students‟ perceptions of EMI in engineering
education and noticed that students proficient in English are more positive about
the learning outcomes of EMI, and less proficient students believe they need
practical support from teaching assistants. After questionnaire survey and
interview with 130 college students, Bang (2013) also noted that while students
at a lower level of English proficiency showed a great deal of anxiety, worrying
about their lack of English proficiency and limited comprehension of the subject
content, one of the benefits Korean college students gained after taking an EMI
class is a lower level of anxiety and the enhanced motivation of English learning.
In a Korean medical school context, Joe (2010) investigated the
relationship between students‟ English proficiency and ability to comprehend
EMI lectures. In this study, language proficiency did not influence students‟
ability to comprehend lectures. Rather, background knowledge measured by
their pre-test scores played a key role in their lecture comprehension measured
by their post-test scores. Joe comments that considering Korean contexts, most
students enrolled in medical school might be intermediate in English proficiency.
Thus, it is possible that background knowledge, rather than language
proficiency, is more influential in determining their ability to comprehend the
lectures. The results of this study support Clapham (1996) in that when the
content is field-specific and the students are intermediate in language
proficiency, background knowledge is more important than language proficiency
itself. Another concern emerging from this review, regarding this second
area, relates to EMI situation.
11
Table 3: Review Findings Relating to Academic EMI Situation
(Williams, 2015, p. 10)
Area Authors Challenges Location Methods
Academic
EMI
situation
Airey &
Linder
(2006)
The asking and answering of
questions by students limited. They
struggled to follow lectures and take
notes.
Sweden Quantitative
Chang
(2010)
Students from technical disciplines
faced more difficulties in
comprehending lectures than
students from management related
disciplines. They had limited
vocabulary and slow reading speed.
Taiwan Mixed
Karabinar
(2008)
L1 vital tool for acquiring the
content knowledge. It made the
process easier for students.
Turkey Quantitative
Kim, Son
&
Sohn
(2009)
Majority of students stated that EMI
courses experienced were worse
than the same course in Korean.
Offering Korean supplementary
material deters the students‟ English
development.
Korea Quantitative
Somer
(2001)
L1 and L2 used for teaching, as
students had low proficiency and
comprehension problems.
Turkey Quantitative
Sert
(2008)
EMI was ineffective in providing
academic content. It had a negative
influence on students‟ critical
thinking ability.
Turkey Quantitative
Tamtan
et al.
(2012)
Faculty fail to develop both
linguistic and academic content.
Students‟ insufficient language
knowledge and lack of interest is a
threat to cultural identity.
Europe,
Asia,
& Africa
Review
12
The final challenge causing implementational problems is limited
resources (Dang et al., 2013; Huong, 2010; Manh, 2012).
Table 4: Review Findings Relating to EMI support
(Williams, 2015, p. 14)
Area Authors Challenges Location Methods
EMI
support
Byun et
al.
(2011)
There has been little assistance
for students and instructors
who lack adequate English
skills to meet the demands of
EMI courses. Lack of support
is due to financial constraints.
Students had to seek and pay
for own support
Korea Mixed
Chang
(2010)
Problems with a skills based
support program. Students not
satisfied with a General
English course as it did not
meet their EAP needs. Faculty
needs support in L2 oral
presentation skills.
Taiwan Mixed
Doiz et
al.
(2012)
Lack of support from the
University authorities. Support
needs to be in the form of
economic support which
provides competent teaching
staff. Lack of insufficient
support has been a trend
throughout Europe.
Spain Qualitative
Ibrahim
(2001)
There is no system in place to
support the students outside
the
Indonesia Review
13
Area Authors Challenges Location Methods
EMI classroom.
Joe &
Lee
(2012)
Supportive courses are
prevalent on ESL courses, but
are lacking on EFL courses.
EFL students need more
support than ESL students
because they have less contact
with English and fewer
English resources when out of
the classroom environment.
Korea Quantitative
Kirkgöz
(2009)
EAP curriculum inadequate in
effectively preparing the
students to deal with the
academic content.
Turkey Mixed
Mellion
(2008)
Funding was attributed to be a
reason for the lack of support.
Netherland Qualitative
Baldauf, Kaplan, Kamwangamalu, and Bryan (2011), examining
several Asian countries‟ language policies, conclude that “funding for
normal programmes, the training of teachers and money for textbooks are all
inadequate” (p. 318). Besides, students‟ language difficulties seem to be
exacerbated when coupled with the lack of important implementation
resources such as competent English – speaking lecturers and an effective
individualized support scheme (Tsuneyoshi, 2005). In Vietnam, there was a
study investigating about challenges facing EMI students. The results
indicated that students “seemed to face multiple challenges, including the
unclear requirements of the program, low language skills, insufficient
resources and support”. (Nha, 2014, p. 286).
14
Constantinides (1992) asserted that international students who choose to
study in America are often the brightest students in their home countries and are
also very motivated students. However, proficiency in the English language may
be particularly problematic for most international students. For example, the way
that English is taught in China is more through writing than through a speaking
form. As a result, many Chinese international students know English grammar and
vocabulary, but have a difficult time with conversational English (Wan, 1999).
Further, Chinese students often have difficulty answering questions verbally and
writing essays (Feng, 1991). International students have other problems such as
understanding lectures, taking notes, taking part in class discussions, and writing
papers (Huntley, 1993). These students may also have difficulty in understanding
English American slang, accents, idioms, and jokes. These difficulties with the
conversational usage of English or cultural language can create a great deal of
academic stress in university classrooms, particularly when communication and
participation are encouraged (Bolanle, 1996). International students may think that
they are incompetent in conversational English to participate in class. Writing can
be another problem for international students as well.
Interestingly, Arden-Close suggested learning strategies available to
foreign language learners (point-driven strategies, rather than information-driven
strategies) to comprehend lectures more effectively. Following this issue, the
researcher will review previous studies about students‟ coping strategies in the
following section.
II.3. Previous studies on coping strategiesin multilingual higher education
This section will specifically and selectively examine some studies on
students‟ coping strategies. According to Johnson, Scholes and Wittington
(2008) strategy within a management context encompass a plan for both
direction and scope of an organisation. It means that available resources are
15
planned to be used efficiently, often within a challenging environment. Seen
from the perspective of students in higher education, their scope could vary
between trying to learn as much as possible using available resources to reach
their goals, to spending a minimum of time on a task to pass an upcoming exam.
Coping strategies become necessary if available resources are not felt to be
enough to reach personal goals and satisfy assessment requirements. Here, I see
them as a set of options which students may choose from in a more or less
conscious way to overcome learning problems in a multilingual setting. The
medium of instruction in school dictates to a large extent the attainment of
knowledge and skills at all levels of the education system. It can promote,
stagnate or even stifle the acquisition of knowledge and skills that are pertinent
to development (Brock-Utne et al. 2004; Brock-Utne and Alidou 2006; Webb
2004; Vavrus 2003; Kyeyune 2010). As a response to challenges posed by the
use of the English medium in higher education, considerable research has been
undertaken to investigate how students meet and adjust to such challenges
(Andrada 2006; Evans and Morrison 2011, 2010; Praxton 2009; Ramsey 1999;
Van der Walt and Dornbrack 2011).
Although some of the studies investigate foreign students trying to adjust
to the demands of English as a medium of instruction in main Anglophone
countries such as the US and Australia (Andrada 2006, 2009; Ramsey 1999;
Ramsey, Raven and Hall 2005), their findings seem to be in line with those
studies carried out in less English speaking contexts (Björkman 2011; Evans and
Morrisson 2010, 2011; Ljsland 2010; Praxton 2009; Van der Walt and
Dornbrack 2011). When investigating how students respond to challenges caused
by having English as a medium of instruction in Hong Kong, Evans and
Morrisson (2011) suggest that by combining practices such as hard work, strong
motivation, effective learning strategies and peer networks, students manage to
16
overcome academic problems such as understanding technical vocabulary,
comprehending lectures, and meeting disciplinary requirements.
In a different geographical context but similar linguistic setting where
English is second/ foreign language to students, Praxton (2009) identified
translation to be an important learning practice that naturally and inevitably
occurs in the South African context, in classroom or in peer learning groups
since they switch from English to their local languages in order to better
understand new concepts. The researcher believes that unless students explored
concepts through various languages, they would not really develop their own
personal construction and an enriched understanding of them. In a related
context, Van der Walt and Dornbrack (2011) investigated ways of coping with
higher education by bilingual students at Stellenbosch University where
Afrikaans is used alongside English as language of teaching and learning. In
their study, translation was generally found to be time consuming. Thus, their
bilingual respondents preferred to explain subject content in their own mundane
words rather than through translation. Their study further identified that the
bilingual requirements and context in which it took place afford “trans-language
to construct meaning” (Garcia 2009:14) instead of forming barriers for learning.
Furthermore, they mentioned relying upon friends and relatives as “funds of
knowledge” (Moll 2007:274) as yet another successful strategy to deal with the
challenges of higher education studies in a second or foreign language of
instruction. Thus, according to Van der Walt and Dornbrack (2011), the use of
more than one language in the researched higher education institution potentially
assists rather than diminishes the development of academic discourse. From the
reviewed studies, it is clear that the context has a bearing on which strategies
learners adopt in order to facilitate learning. Still on the educational uses of
languages, researchers identified the importance of exploratory talk in the
17
development of learners‟ understanding of new concepts (Barnes 2008; Mercer
and Dawes 2008). Exploratory talk promotes interaction and flourishes in
mutually supportive groups. By exposing lack of knowledge and floating new
and incomplete ideas, such talk presents scaffolding opportunities for a careful
and knowledgeable facilitator and can culminate in knowledge sharing and
development (Barnes 2008; Mercer 1995). Other studies also examined the
contribution of peer network and collaboration as well as the ensuing talk as
practices that are likely to mediate cognitively demanding academic concepts (Li
et al. 2010; Mercer 2008). The present study adds to the previous studies by
investigating students‟ coping strategies in the flux of change from learning in
most students‟ first foreign language, French, to learning in their second foreign
language, English.
In summary, this chapter has reviewed three important bodies of literature
to provide background to investigate the challenges facing students as well as
their strategies to overcome the situation in learning the EMI program. The next
chapter will describe the methodological background for the study as well as the
description of the study design.
18
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
In the previous chapter, the theoretical matters related to the topic have
been introduced. In order to see how they work in real learning environment,
the main contents of the chapter include the context and the subjects of the
study, the research questions, the data collection instruments, the data
collection procedure, and the data analysis procedure. Also, this chapter
mentions the advantages and disadvantages when the researcher used those
instruments and data analysis procedure.
III.1. Context of the study
This paper investigated an EMI program in a cooperative program
named International Standard Program (ISP). The study was conducted at
Hanoi University of Science (HUS), a state university located in Nguyen
Trai Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. HUS is quite famous for providing good at
training programs in English, for example, Honor Program for Talented
Students; Advanced Program: and International Standard Program (ISP). ISP
covers several different majors such as Physics, Biology, and Geology. Every
year there are thousands of new students enrolling in these faculties; these
faculties, hence, receive a lot of attention from the university.
At HUS, programs in English are considered extremely important
ones to all students; therefore, students have to study other subjects in English
during a year at HUS. English and majors are two priorities equipped for
students in the search for a competitive job. That is why HUS always looks
for new ways to improve the quality of teaching and learning subjects in
English. New programs, therefore, have been launched and adjusted to better
meet the global changes. Currently, a program called EMI is being introduced
to help students in learning other subjects in English. Learners can interact
with lecturers in a virtual reality English environment. Laboratory and
19
classroom lessons are altered to help learners overcome their shyness and
weaknesses when communicating with foreigners. That is, the university
principal puts emphasis on learner‟s achievement both in learning content
and language. In fact, after a first year, compared to non-major students
from other universities, their English tends to be better; however, the
efficiency is not up to educators‟ expectations. Learners still face up with
many difficulties during the program.
III.2. Research questions
As mentioned in section I.3, my study was carried out to find out the
answer to the following questions:
1. What are Physics students‟ challenges in taking an EMI program?
2. What coping strategies have they been taking?
III.3. The study
This section will describe participants of the study, the data collection
instruments including questionnaires and interviews followed a procedure.
III.3.1. Participants
Firstly, the populations for questionnaires were thirteen second year
Physics students in Faculties of ISP at HUS. Most of them are young
Vietnamese students entering university after they have finished high
school. They had completed the first-year language program at HUS.
Secondly, all of them were invited to participate in the interview however 2 of
them were willing to take part in. All students have studied English for at
least three years, and are going to finish their second semester of the second
year at HUS at the time of the study.
III.3.2. Data collection instruments
To reach the objectives of the study, questionnaire was used as the first
tool for data collection in this research. According to Wilson and McLean
20
(1994), questionnaire is a widely used and useful instrument for collecting
survey information, providing structured, often numerical data, being able to be
administered without the presence of the researcher, and often being
comparatively straightforward to analyse. Hence, it would certainly be valuable
for helping the author explore the subjects‟ challenges and strategies. Extracting
relevant items from the earlier studies, the researcher consulted my supervisor
in the field, and modified the items considering the study context. Some items
from the questionnaire were based on Nha‟s project implemented in 2014 in
New South Wales University. This is because Nha‟s project was conducted in a
similar context of an EMI program in the same university. After a repeated
process of item extraction, 10 questionnaire items were finalized including both
closed-ended and open-ended items.
In the second stage, interviews were conducted as a flow-on step from
questionnaires to provide deeper data of EMI program implementation. There
are 27 students in the class, the researcher received only 13 completed
questionnaires and only 2 of them gave me the contact for the follow-up the
interview. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to elaborate on the
students‟ challenges and their coping strategies which could be missed from
questionnaires.
About language for data collection, the instruments included Vietnamese
student questionnaires and Vietnamese interview questions. I will discuss the
reasons for this language choice and the procedures to translate the research
instruments. First, the questionnaires were written in English, and translated into
Vietnamese to give the participants a choice of language which was more
comfortable for them (Le, 2012). However when the researcher delivered the
questionnaire, all participants chose Vietnamese item to avoid misunderstanding
of the questions. Second, the interview questions were also translated into
21
Vietnamese. The participants could select either English or Vietnamese to be the
language of the interviews. The researcher asked them to make a selection, all
participants preferred Vietnamese. It was likely that as it was our mother tongue,
they felt more comfortable to converse in it. (Le, 2012).
To translate the data collection instrument, I did the initial translation of
the questionnaire and interview. The Vietnamese version was then back
translated by a teacher who held a Master degree in English language teaching.
The next step was to compare the original English and the back translated
versions of the questionnaire and interview to ensure their equivalence (Nha,
2014). Language for data analysis was also Vietnamese. I translated the data
excerpts that were integrated in the finding and discussion with special
attention to the meaning of the messages rather than the sentence structures
(Bashiruddin, 2013) from Vietnamese into English; and I represented the
English version (translated version) in the final report.
Detailed procedures for conducting student questionnaires and interviews
will be discussed in the following section.
III.3.3. Data collection procedure
The study has taken place during the first semester of the academic year
for two months. The data collection instruments employed in order to collect
data included questionnaires and interviews. The student questionnaire was
delivered for 27 students in a class and obtained 13 respondents. To write good
questions, this project needed to pilot the questionnaire. Initially, a paper
questionnaire of 10 questions was given to a teacher and MA students at a group
meeting to get feedback on structure, content, word choice and instruction. A lot
of valuable feedback from these experienced survey users was received during
and after the meeting. For example, it was suggested that the detail information
of student should not be put at the beginning of the survey because it is optional.
22
Besides, the item 4 (What do you think about the important of learning other
subjects in English? – Very important/ Important/ Not very important/ Not
important) should be left out because students seemed answer this question
without much thinking.
After their informed consent, semi- structured individual interviews were
conducted in order to allow respondents to express themselves as exhaustively as
possible on questions related to the students‟ challenges and strategies. Also, the
interviews helped the researcher to follow-up some of the questions or issues that
were raised from the questionnaire. Each interview lasted 4 minutes on average.
The researcher asked the respondents for permission to tape record them and
they accepted. The questions were formulated both in Vietnamese and English
and the respondents were allowed to respond in the language of their choice.
Ethical considerations such as informed consent and confidentiality were
emphasized throughout the data collection process. To abide by the anonymity
principle, respondents in the interview data set are identified as SS1, SS2 etc.
(SS stands for students‟ answers while the number designates the respondents as
they were participating in the interviews). The quotes for the present study are
selected support the identified themes and sub-themes (Braun & Clarke 2006)
and show variation in strategies employed. The researcher hoped that the data
could shed light on strategies that students use in order to cope with their
academic subjects.
In brief, this chapter provides a detail description of the instruments
employed by the researcher in the study and the process of collecting data by
these tools. The next chapter will provide the findings about the students‟
challenges and their coping strategies to promote English when they are learning
the English Medium program.
23
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS
In this chapter, the findings are reflected through the data of the
conducted questionnaire and interview. Selected questionnaire and interview
responses are used to uncover, support and illustrate strategies used to mediate
learning. This comprehensive analysis, which explores, what challenges students
face and what students‟ coping strategies are, will lay a firm foundation for a
discussion and conclusion in the following part of the study. The chapter is divided
into two major sections: the findings of questionnaire and the findings of interview.
IV.1. The findings of questionnaire
The researcher delivered 27 sets of questionnaire and received 13 ones. The
two first questions in the survey were intended to elicit background information on
the students including gender, their English background (learning time). Overall,
the number of female students was similar to that of male students (7:6
respectively, total 27, missing 14). The numbers of years students spent on English
ranged from 3-10. Most students had between three and seven years of learning
English. It could be seen that students studied some of the different English
curricula currently implemented in the Vietnamese education system.
Physic students at HUS are asked to give the reason why they learn
English. The questions consist of some closed options and one open option for
other responses. The selected responses were showed in the following figure.
46.1
30.8
15.4
7.7
Because my major was
taught in English
Because I am interested
in English
Because it‟s useful for
my future job
Because I want to travel
abroad
Others
Figure 1: The students’ purposes for learning English
24
The figure 1 shows that most students took the English course because
their major was taught in English (46.1%). This proves that they paid attention
to the course‟s requirement. Coming to the second significant reason is because
they are interested in learning English with 30.8 % of students.
In addition to the listed reasons, the students are also asked about the time
they spent learning English outside classroom to get an objective reflection about
the time allocation. The most answer fluctuates from 15 minutes to 2 hours per
day. Some students give the answer: “0 hour” that means they only learn English
when there are English lessons in the class.
In short, students‟ learning purposes and their learning time were elicited
in the two questions. In this part, major findings were presented with two main
categories: students‟ difficulties and coping strategies The subsequent section
will present challenges facing students.
IV.1.1. Stu ents’ challenges
Question 6 asked students to what areas of using English they often have
issues. The results were counted and shown in the figure 2. The results indicate
that a majority of the students thought that listening was of the most difficult
skills (11), following by pronunciation (9), writing (7), speaking (6), vocabulary
(4) and reading as well as grammar (1). Students often had trouble with listening
skill and pronunciation rather than reading and grammar.
25
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Figure 2: Areas of using English students often face challenges
Question 7 in the questionnaire elicited the detailed challenges students
face when they learn Physics in English. The respondents could select several
options that were applicable to them. Table 4 summaries the results.
Table 5: Students’ challenges
Question 7 Number of answers
What are the challenges you often face in
the course?
29
a. I don‟t understand the requirements of the
program
1
b. My language skills are poor 9
c. I am not motivated to learn English 6
d.It takes too much time to prepare for the class 3
e. I find it difficult to understand the lectures
when they were instructed in English
8
f. Others 2
The data show that the most challenges for students in learning EMI
course. Most students revealed that they encountered many difficulties relating
to insufficient language knowledge because of the lack of English ability (9
responses), which may result in a lack of interest or they are not motivated to
26
learn English (6 responses). They also found it difficult to understand the
lectures when they were instructed in English (8 responses).
IV.1.2. Stu ents’ coping strategies
Question 8 and 9 in the questionnaire elicited information about the ways
students used to improve their English. The respondents could select several
options that were applicable to them. The selected responses were counted and a
summary of the results is provided in table.
Table shows that students have a lot of coping strategies to learn the course
better. Many students spent time learning outside classroom and worked in pairs or
groups (7 responses) while not many students asked the teacher for help (1
response). Of the six responses in the Others option, three respondents said they
often took part in English club outside school, listening to music and reading books,
two emphasized talking to foreigners and working as sellers at supermarket. The
remaining one respondent said that he listened to the radio and read materials.
Table 6: Students’ coping strategies and suggestions for teachers
Question Number of answers
What are your methods/ coping strategies to help your
learning English in the content course more effective? 17
8a. I spend a lot of time learning outside classroom 3
8b. I ask for the teacher if I need the help 1
8c. Practice with friends in pairs and in groups 7
8d. Others 6
What suggestion do you have for your teacher? 32
9a. More interaction between teacher and students in
class
10
9b. Teachers should use more games in class 12
27
Question Number of answers
9c.There are more activities and clubs for students to
practice English both outside and inside classroom
12
9d. Others 0
A question about the suggestion for the teacher was shown in the table.
The responses specified that they wanted to learn in the class with more games.
It is very useful if there are more activities and clubs for students to practice
English both outside and inside classroom. A smaller group of 10 respondents
wanted more interaction between teacher and students in class.
However, the weaknesses of a questionnaire tool with provided options is
that it does not allow the respondents to fully express their opinions (Gillham,
2000) or enough space for comprehensive description of their opinions.
Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the issues raised in the questionnaire
findings in more depth in the follow-up interviews.
IV.2. The findings of interview
A list of 6 questions was drawn up to collect the data about student‟s
learning. 2 Physics students were willing to take part in the interview. In
fact, the students did learn EMI course one year ago and they were familiar
to the program.
IV.2.1. Stu ents’ challenges
Findings from the interview show that two major challenges emerged:
students‟ English abilities and comprehending lectures. Regarding the question,
“What were the main challenges for you?”, the issue of students‟ difficulties was
further explained in the interview data. Firstly, most students revealed that they
encountered many difficulties relating to insufficient language knowledge
because of the lack of English ability, which may result in a lack of interest.
28
Although students believed that EMI was valuable in improving language
proficiency, students did not comprehend everything their teachers said.
I would like to use the first language to explain complex materials.
I think the first language is a vital tool for acquiring the content
knowledge. (SS2)
Secondly, a concern emerging from the interview data was that students
have more difficulties in comprehending lectures. Furthermore, they said that
when English was used, the asking and answering of questions in English was
limited. They also struggled to follow lectures and take notes. This was one of
the most challenges existing in EMI course because it had the negative influence
on students‟ critical thinking ability.
IV.2.2. Stu ents’ coping strategies
Regarding the question, “What did you do to improve the situation?,
the data noted the coping strategies (group work; extensive reading; lecture
attendance, completing assigned work and memorization) that physics
students had to adopt in order to deal with the challenges. Each strategy
could be effective to this person but ineffective to others, I discussed
interviewees‟ opinions and ways to overcome their situations. The first
coping strategy is group work.
Group work
Firstly, the data revealed that the students perceived group work to be an
effective method that allowed them to work with peers, get feedback, and apply
their knowledge. Therefore, they are more motivated and could acquire
knowledge more quickly:
I feel comfortable when I work with my close friends because I can raise
my voice and share information without hesitation. We take part in a game
29
where there are a lot of new words we have to learn by heart and I try to
remember as much as possible to be the winner. I am often shy when the
teachers call or ask question even though I know the answer at that time. In the
class, group work is also a good way but I see this method is not often used by
my teacher. I do not know why, I think this activity is time-consuming for
teacher. (SS2)
In my opinion, making clear issues in lectures is very important. I
think group-work is good at doing exercises or but sometimes I think it is
boring. (SS1)
The students‟ reactions to group work indicate that it had both negative
and positive influences on their perceptions of learning. The following section
will present the second coping strategy: extensive reading.
Extensive reading
Students said that extensive reading is efficient in helping them to
understand their courses.
I think the course is not too difficult. Although I do not have anyone
to explain me, I try to do it by myself, I search on internet, on other notes
from previous years or I leave it as it is. Here, reading material seems to
be a rewarding strategy. (SS2)
She also explains her whole coping process:
First, I often ask my friends who know or who understand very
well the issues we are studying. Then, I check the dictionary for difficult
words I do not know. Next, I can ask the teacher to translate in other
languages if she or he knows others. These are my three procedures to
overcome the problem. (SS2)
Other strategies mentioned by one student include doing his best to
upgrade his knowledge of English and to keep informed by listening to
30
news and other broadcasts in English, as well as reading newspapers. He
also read books related to his field of study.
I often listen to the radio or try to understand some information
broadcasting such as BBC every morning and sometimes I read journals
or newspapers and as a student I try to read books about my subjects or
courses I study here at the university. (SS1)
This student seems to be aware of globalisation and he is motivated
to learn a language that will help him in the future. Considering the
academic benefits of extensive reading, some students acknowledged the
importance of having access to the internet where they get additional
material as exemplified in the following extract.
Sometimes I check in a dictionary or consult other students who are
more able to understand than me and sometimes even though I am not
able to understand very well, I try to, try to do understand deeply as the
rules of academic regulation states. (SS2)
When the researcher asked about activities outside classroom
students used to improve your English, some students said:
Of course, yes, I took part in the language programs organized by
my friends‟ school. They often provided knowledge about some
language issues as well as give chances for students to play games.
Besides, I worked as a waiter in a restaurant where I used English to
communicate with foreigners but not much. (SS1)
According to the participants, extensive reading makes studying at
higher education through the medium of English less problematic. Also,
motivation to upgrade their English and hard work generally prove to be
efficient coping strategies. The subsequent section will present the third
coping strategy.
31
Lecture attendance, completing assigned work and memorization
Further coping strategies that emerged from the interview data
related to maximum attendance at lectures, completion of assigned work
in due time and memorisation as exemplified in the following extracts:
Yes, I pay attention to attend the lecture because I think the
knowledge in the lectures at the class is very important. At home, I just
revise and prepare the lesson before coming to the class. (SS2)
The above mentioned response showed that lecture attendance and
timely completion of assigned tasks are successful strategies.
Chapter IV has presented the main findings from questionnaires and
interviews. Basing on the findings collected, the students seemed to face
multiple challenges but two major ones are students‟ English ability and
comprehending lectures. To overcome these problems, students used many
learning strategies such as: group work, extensive reading, lecture attendance,
completing assigned work and memorization. In the next chapter, the findings
presented in chapter IV will be revisited in combination with the literature to
provide a broader picture of the EMI implementation in this study. It also offered
a discussion and a summary of the key findings, recommendations, limitations,
and future directions for further study.
32
CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
This last chapter serves as a summary for the whole paper. The chapter is
divided into four major sections. First, it presents the discussion of the study
which revisits the major findings, comparing them with previous studies in the
literature. Second, it addresses the key findings of the study. Third, it draws out
implications to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English.
Finally, the chapter presents the limitations of the study as for the author as well
as her suggestions for further research into the EMI implementation.
V.1. Discussion of key findings
This section discusses the findings in the light of the existing literature. It
does not simply summarise the findings in previous chapter (chapter IV). The
section also mentions some methods related to students‟ coping strategies.
In the study, the findings indicate that students face two particular
challenges.
(1) The first major one is students‟ own English abilities. Both interview
and survey findings mentioned this challenge. In the EMI literature, the most
frequently-quoted cause is low English ability (Byun 2011; Williams 2015;
Ibrahim 2001; Manh 2012; Some 2001; Tamtan 2012). In the study, the
researcher notes that many students have low English proficiency. Lack of
proficiency in students is a „threat‟ as it could lead to no rapport, no
comprehension checks. Suggestions to address these issues include establishing
an English threshold and improving students‟ English proficiency above that
level (Byun et al., 2011); otherwise, students suffer from both language and
content loss in EMI environments (Kyeyune, 2010; Mohamed, 2013).
(2) The second major challenge, comprehending the lectures, was also
presented in the interview data; and is familiar with findings in questionnaires. In
the EMI literature review, international students often have problems
33
understanding lectures (Huntley, 1993). In the study, students find it difficult to
understand the lectures when they were instructed in English. Students also
expressed difficulty with new terminology and concepts. The nature of the
subject matter of the course necessitated the introduction of a heavy load of new
concepts. Difficulties in understanding lectures were due to the speed at which
the professors talked and their accents. Participants in the study said: “Don't
understand what teacher says,” “Difficult to understand their talking, especially
terms and phrases,” “Some teachers spoke too fast and it was hard to keep
following him/her,”. Finally, one participant mentioned that it was “Hard to
participate when my classmates discuss some topics. They talk unclearly.”
Therefore, to overcome challenges and to mediate cognitively demanding
academic subjects, students employ a number of strategies. The most common
strategies relate to group work, extensive reading, lecture attendance, completing
assigned work and memorization. Findings in this study were aligned earlier
findings as regards meeting and adjusting to challenges posed by English as the
language of instruction (Evans and Morrisson 2010, 2011; Ljsland 2010; Praxton
2009; Van der Walt and Dornbrack 2011).
The researcher would discuss some methods related to students‟ coping
strategies. The first one involves collaboration in learning (Marie, 2013).
Mentoring and peer support systems are ways of working to enhance
understanding of the subject matter. Marie (2013, p. 7) draws on the answer of a
student to illustrate this point: “The strategy that we use for example in our
classroom there is mentoring. The person who understands the course well, he
explains in Kinyarwanda in front of the class in the absence of the lecturer and
sometimes if it is the practical work you may go to the internet in the library to
bring some dictionaries and so on but most of the time we are using the
mentoring in Kinyarwanda or French in our class if the class is taught in
34
English.” The above quote emphasises the importance of a student self-initiated
mentorship system that has been developed over time to facilitate understanding
of the courses.
The second engagement method involves using familiar languages to
clear up confusion and enhance learning. Existing studies support the use of a
familiar language as a potentially relevant strategy to cope with the challenges
posed by English as a medium of instruction. In their investigation into how
students meet the demands of English in the Hong Kong context, Evans and
Morrisson (2011), noted that peer collaboration and support was most relevant
when mediated in Cantonese. Still in the Hong Kong context but with high
school learners, Tam (2011) emphasizes the richness and relevance of
instruction when both teachers and learners are conversant with the language of
instruction. She states that teachers give more examples and generate a rich
discourse when they use a familiar language. Similarly, learners engage in
collaborative construction of knowledge through more animated classroom
interactions. In his earlier research about classroom language use in Hong
Kong‟s reformed English medium streams, Evans (2008) observes that the use
of students‟ mother tongue to explain lesson content was a necessary,
inevitable and understandable strategy in order to ensure complete
understanding. On the African continent, Setati, Adler, Reed and Bapoo (2002)
note that switching to a language that learners and teachers understand better
assists them in the understanding of concepts and communication of ideas. As
such, they maintain that such a strategy could support classroom
communication and exploratory talk, a particular type of learner talk, meant to
understand the subject matter. Drawing on her extensive research in Africa in
the framework of Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa,
Brock- Utne (2007) maintains that through the use of a familiar language,
35
students engage in meaningful conversations and build on previous knowledge.
Considering the context in Vietnam where a disjunction exists between
the language of instruction and the language of out of class communication
(Vietnamese), students often use Vietnamese to clear misunderstanding, reduce
confusion. Findings from the interview data in this study could also provide
insight into the issue. (see section IV.2, chapter IV: findings).
V.2. Summary of key findings
The findings of this study will be summarized as follows.
1.The students seemed to face multiple challenges but two major ones are
students‟ English ability and comprehending lectures.
2.The evidence suggests that students are able to overcome these and
other problems through a combination of effective learning strategies: group
work, extensive reading, lecture attendance, completing assigned work and
memorization.
V.3. Implications
For students, in order for the EMI programs to achieve desired outcomes,
students should be equipped with better communicative English skills. It would
be effective if the student spent some amount of time preparing the lessons
before coming to the class. Besides, the lecturers and administrators should
consult the students about challenges using various methods.
V.4. Limitations
There are a number of limitations to the study that might affect the scope
of these implications.
First, the small number of 2 interviews cannot be the basis for
generalizing from the findings. However, the aim of this qualitative study was to
gain insights into students‟ experiences and not to seek generalization. Second,
there were a lot of coping strategies students offered, the researcher still did not
36
evaluate how effective those strategies were; whether strategies were good or
bad ones and whether participants‟ abilities were high or low. What is more,
students‟ challenges are complexly difficult to classify into different types. Also,
it is contextual and the findings might not be directly applicable to other groups
of EMI students.
With these limitations; all comments on the improvement are welcomed
and appreciated.
V.5. Suggestions for further research
For further study, it is suggested that future research can either
investigate deeper into this field or extend to find out how effective the coping
strategies are. Researching about English Medium program is still a new and
potential field that needs further investigations.
The present study has investigated coping strategies that students use to
handle the difficulties of having English as the medium of instruction. It could
equally be of interesting further investigate teachers‟ support strategies in
helping students to build up knowledge and understanding of their domain
specific content learnt through the medium of English in HUS.
This concluding chapter has presented the discussion of EMI
implementation and major findings, comparing them with previous studies in
the literature. Besides, it identifies areas for improvement in the study, draws
out implication and briefly proposes directions for future research. It is hoped
that the findings of this research could contribute to understand more about
learners, to enhance teaching and learning EMI program at the institution.
37
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APPENDIX I
QUESTIONNAIRE
This survey questionnaire is designed to serve my research on the English
Medium program in HUS. Your fulfillment of this survey questionnaire will be a
great contribution to my thesis paper. In each question, you can circle the
answer you choose.
1.You are: a. Male b. Female
2.How long have you learnt English? ……………………………………
3.What are your reasons for learning English?
a.Because my major was taught in English
b.Because I am interested in English.
c.Because it‟s useful for my future job.
d.Because I want to travel abroad
e.Other (please specify)
………………………………………………………………………..
4.How many hours do you often spend learning English outside classroom?
………………………………………………………………………..
5.Do you have any difficulties in learning other subjects in English?
a.Yes
b.No
6.In what areas of using English do you often have issues? (You may
select MORE THAN one answer if applicable)
a.Reading b.Vocabulary
c.Listening d.Grammar
e.Speaking g. Pronunciation
f. Writing
7.What are the challenges you often face in the course? (You may select
MORE THAN one answer if applicable)
a.I don‟t understand the requirements of the program
b.My language skills are poor
c.I am not motivated to learn English
d.It takes too much time to prepare for the class
e.I cannot understand the lectures when they were instructed in English
f. Others (Please specify)
…………………………………………………………………………
8.What are your methods/ coping strategies to help your learning English
in the content course more effective? (You may select MORE THAN one answer
if applicable)
a.I spend a lot of time learning outside classroom (self-study)
b.I ask for the teacher if I need the help
c.Practice with friends in pairs and in groups.
d.Others (Please specify)
…………………………………………………………………………
9.What suggestion do you have for your teacher? (You may select MORE
THAN one answer if applicable)
a.More interaction between teacher and students in class
b.Teachers should use more games in class
c.There are more activities and clubs for students to practice English both
outside and inside classroom
d.Others (Please specify)
…………………………………………………………………………
10. If you are willing to be contacted for the follow-up interview about
students‟ challenges in EMI course, please give me your contact details.
Your contact number: …………………………………………….
Your email address: …………………………………………….
Thank you very much for your help!!!
APPENDIX II
BẢNG CÂU HỎI
Bảng khảo sát này được tiến hành cho nghiên cứu về chương trình học các
môn học khác bằng tiếng Anh ở trường Đại học khoa học tự nhiên. Rất cảm ơn
sự đóng góp của các bạn đã tham gia hoàn thiện bảng khảo sát này. Với mỗi câu
hỏi, bạn có thể khoanh câu trả lời bạn chọn.
1.Giới tính của bạn: a. Nam b. Nữ
2.Thời giạn bạn đã học Tiếng Anh là bao lâu? …..……………………
3.Lý do bạn học Tiếng Anh là gì?
a.Bởi vì chuyên ngành của tôi được dạy bằng Tiếng Anh
b.Bởi vì tôi thích Tiếng Anh
c.Bởi vì nó hữu ích cho công việc tương lai của tôi
d.Bởi vì tôi muốn đi nước ngoài
e.Lý do khác (xin nêu rõ)
………………………………………………………………………..
4.Bạn dành bao nhiêu thời gian để học Tiếng Anh ngoài giờ học?
………..………………………………………………………………
5.Bạn có gặp khó khăn gì khi học môn học khác bằng Tiếng Anh hay không?
c.Có
d.Không
6.Bạn thường xuyên gặp khó khăn trong lĩnh vực nào của Tiếng Anh (Bạn
có thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời nếu phù hợp)
a.Đọc b.Từ vựng
c.Nghe d.Ngữ pháp
e.Nói f. Ngữ âm
g.Viết
7.Trong ngành học của bạn, bạn thường gặp những khó khăn gì? (Bạn có
thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời nếu phù hợp)
a.Tôi không hiểu yêu cầu của chương trình học
b.Kỹ năng ngôn ngữ của tôi kém
c.Tôi không có động lực để học Tiếng Anh
d.Mất quá nhiều thời gian để chuẩn bị cho bài học
e.Tôi không hiểu bài học khi nó được dạy bằng Tiếng Anh
8.Bạn có phương pháp/ chiến lược gì để giúp việc học Tiếng Anh của bạn
với môn học chuyên ngành được hiệu quả hơn (Bạn có thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời
nếu phù hợp)
a.Tôi dành thời gian học ngoài giờ học
b.Tôi hỏi giáo viên khi tôi cần sự giúp đỡ
c.Thực hành với bạn theo cặp hoặc theo nhóm
d.Nội dung khác (Xin nêu rõ)
…………………………………………………………………………
9.Gợi ý bạn có thể đưa ra cho giáo viên của bạn là gì? (Bạn có thể chọn
nhiều câu trả lời nếu phù hợp)
a.Tăng sự tương tác giữa giáo viên và học sinh trong lớp học
b.Giáo viên nên sử dụng nhiều trò chơi hơn trong giờ học
c.Tổ chức nhiều hoạt động và các câu lạc bộ cho học sinh để thực hành
Tiếng Anh cả trong và ngoài giờ học
d.Nội dung khác (Xin nêu rõ)
…………………………………………………………………………
10. Nếu bạn đồng ý tham gia vào phần phỏng vấn về những thách thức
của sinh viên khi học các môn học khác bằng Tiếng Anh, xin hãy cung cấp thông
tin liên hệ:
Số điện thoại: …………………………………………….
Địa chỉ email: …………………………………………….
C m ơn sự giúp đỡ của các b n!
APPENDIX III:
INTERVIEW
The investigator explains that she is doing a research about the EMI
program. The researcher would record the interview if the interviewees agree.
She states that “All of your information and the data obtained will be
confidential”.
Interview questions:
- Please briefly introduce yourself
- Tell me about your experience in your classroom
1. Did you have any problems when you studied English before entering
the university?
2. What were the main challenges for you?
3. Do you have any other challenges in the content class now?
4. What did you do to improve the situation? (What are your coping
strategies?)
5. Did you join in any activities outside classroom to improve your
English?
6. What activities do you suggest to help students in EMI program learn
English better?
APPENDIX IV:
BẢN PHỎNG VẤN
Người phỏng vấn giải thích rằng cô ấy đang làm một nghiên cứu về
chương trình dạy các môn học khác bằng tiếng Anh. Người nghiên cứu sẽ ghi âm
cuộc phỏng vấn nếu người được phỏng vấn đồng ý. Cô ấy nói rằng “Tất cả các
thông tin và dữ liệu liên quan đến bạn đều được bảo mật”.
Câu hỏi phỏng vấn
- Hãy giới thiệu ngắn gọn về bản thân
- Kể cho tôi về những trải nghiệm của bạn trong lớp học, cụ thể là:
1. Trước khi vào đại học, bạn có gặp bất kỳ vấn đề nào khi học tiếng Anh
không?
2. Khó khăn chính của bạn là gì?
3. Hiện tại, bạn có gặp bất kỳ khó khăn nào trong lớp học chuyên ngành
không?
4. Bạn đã làm gì để cải thiện tình hình đó?
5. Bạn có tham gia các hoạt động ngoài giờ học để nâng cao trình độ
tiếng Anh của mình không?
6. Để giúp học tốt các môn học khác bằng tiếng Anh, bạn đưa ra gợi ý gì?
APPENDIX V. SAMPLED STUDENT INTERVIEW
TRANSCRIPTS
Date of interview: 29/09/2016 Interview length: 4 minutes
Interviewer: Thu
Interviewee: Physics Students (SS1)
Interview language: Vietnamese
Thu: Hello, let‟s me introduce myself. My name is Thu. I am in my second
year of my M.A study. Today, I have some questions for you related to EMI
program that you are taking (ISP or Advanced Program). The interview will
last for a few minutes. Can we start right now?
SS1: Yes.
Thu: Ok. Did you have any problems when you studied English before
entering the university?
SS1: Before entering the university? Yes, I did.
Thu: What were the main challenges for you?
SS1: Actually, I did not remember. I just found difficult to learn listening and
speaking skills.
Thu: Do you have any other challenges in the content class now?
SS1: There are a lot of new terms. They are difficult to remember if I do not
understand its nature. It is very easy to misunderstand the lectures because I
just understood some words among words I can hear.
Thu: What did you do to improve the situation?
SS1: I often listen to the radio or try to understand some information
broadcasting such as BBC every morning and sometimes I read journals
or newspapers and as a student I try to read books about my subjects or
courses I study here at the university.
I think group-work is also good at doing exercises or but sometimes I
think it is boring.
Thu: Did you join in any activities outside classroom to improve your
English?
SS1: Of course, yes, I used to take part in the language programs
organized by my friends‟ school. They often provided knowledge about
some language issues as well as give chances for students to play games.
Besides, I worked as a waiter in a restaurant where I used English to
communicate with foreigners but not much.
Thu: What do you suggest to help students in EMI program learn English
better?
SS1: I want to learn course books in English rather than in Vietnamese.
Thu: Did you study course books in Vietnamese?
SS1: Yes, some books are Vietnamese. I find it easy to understand the books
written in English rather than in Vietnamese. Some Vietnamese course books
are difficult.
Thu: Ok. Did you want to share any else?
SS1: No.
Thu: Ok, thank you very much.

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[123doc] - a-study-on-physics-students-challenges-and-their-coping-strategies-on-an-english-as-a-medium-of-instruction-emi-program-at-hanoi-university-of-science-vietnam-national-university.pdf

  • 1. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ THANH THƯ A STUDY ON PHYSICS STUDENTS’ CHALLENGES AND THEIR COPING STRATEGIES ON AN ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION (EMI) PROGRAM AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu về những khó khăn và biện pháp khắc phục của sinh viên khoa Vật lý khi theo học khóa học chu ên ngành gi ng ng ti ng nh t i trường Đ i học Khoa học Tự nhiên, Đ i học Quốc gia Hà Nội) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English teaching methodology Code: 60140111 Ha Noi, November 2016
  • 2. VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ THANH THƯ A STUDY ON PHYSICS STUDENTS’ CHALLENGES AND THEIR COPING STRATEGIES ON AN ENGLISH AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION (EMI) PROGRAM AT HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu về những khó khăn và biện pháp khắc phục của sinh viên khoa Vật lý khi theo học khóa học chu ên ngành gi ng ng ti ng nh t i trường Đ i học Khoa học Tự nhiên, Đ i học Quốc gia Hà Nội) (M.A THESIS) Field : English teaching methodology Code : 60140111 Supervisor : Dr. Vu Thi Thanh Nha Ha Noi, November 2016
  • 3. i DECLARATION I hereby certify that this thesis is entirely my own work. I have provided fully documented references to the other‟s work. The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course. I also accept all the requirements of University of Languages and International Studies relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library.
  • 4. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of some people, and in some ways, I would like to thank everyone who has taught me, inspired me, challenged me, and supported me throughout the realization of this thesis. I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Dr. Vu Thi Thanh Nha, for her whole-hearted assistance, encouragement as well as the profound guidance she gave me while I was doing my research. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all lecturers in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lectures which have inspired me to conduct this thesis. Last but not least, I would also like to express my thanks to students at Hanoi University of Science, VNU for their willingness to participate in the research. Without their help, this project could not be fulfilled. Hanoi, November, 2016 Do Thi Thanh Thu
  • 5. iii ABSTRACT English-medium instruction (EMI) has been a great interest to language and language policy researchers in an era of globalization and internationalization. In spite of recognising implemental problems and constraints, EMI has been widely introduced into countries where English is not the native language. This paper reported the findings of the study that aimed at identifying second-year physics students‟ challenges and their coping strategies when they studied the EMI program. Two issues, hence, are investigated: (1) what challenges the learners face and (2) what are their coping strategies in the implementation of EMI in Vietnam. The analysis of empirical data garnered from questionnaires and interviews reveals that the students faced such serious challenges as: students‟ English ability and comprehending lectures. Their common strategies were group work, extensive reading, lecture attendance, completing assigned work and memorization. Based on these findings, suggestions are made for enhancing the success of similar programs.
  • 6. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATION TERMS HUS : Hanoi University of Science VNU : Vietnam National University CBI : Content-based Instruction CLIL : Content and Language Integrated Learning L1 : First Language L2 : Second language MOET : The Ministry of Education and Training ELT : English language teaching EMI : English as the Medium of Instruction
  • 7. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ............................................................................................i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT..............................................................................ii ABSTRACT..................................................................................................iii LIST OF ABBREVIATION TERMS............................................................iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES.............................................................vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION................................................................ 1 I.1. Rationale.................................................................................................. 1 I.2. Aims of the study ..................................................................................... 2 I.3. Research questions................................................................................... 2 I.4. Scope of the study.................................................................................... 2 I.5. Method of the study ................................................................................. 2 I.6. Design of the study .................................................................................. 3 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW................................................... 4 II.1. The EMI context..................................................................................... 4 II.1.1. Context of EMI in the world ............................................................ 4 II.1.2. Context of EMI in Vietnam.............................................................. 5 II.2. Challenges facing EMI students.............................................................. 8 II.3. Previous studies on coping strategies in multilingual higher education ....... 14 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY.......................................................... 18 III.1. Context of the study............................................................................. 18 III.2. Research questions .............................................................................. 19 III.3. The study............................................................................................. 19 III.3.1. Participants................................................................................... 19 III.3.2. Data collection instruments........................................................... 19 III.3.3. Data collection procedure ............................................................. 21
  • 8. vi CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS........................................................................ 23 IV.1. The findings of questionnaire .............................................................. 23 IV.1.1. Students‟ challenges ..................................................................... 24 IV.1.2. Students‟ coping strategies ........................................................... 26 IV.2. The findings of interview .................................................................... 27 IV.2.1. Students‟ challenges ..................................................................... 27 IV.2.2. Students‟ coping strategies ........................................................... 28 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ............................... 32 V.1. Discussion of key findings.................................................................... 32 V.2. Summary of key findings...................................................................... 35 V.3. Implications.......................................................................................... 35 V.4. Limitations ........................................................................................... 35 V.5. Suggestions for further research ........................................................... 36 REFERENCES........................................................................................... 37 APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………45
  • 9. vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Language-in- Education Policy Goals............................................. 7 Table 2: Review Findings Regarding the Students‟Language Proficiencies........ 8 Table 3: Review Findings Relating to Academic EMI Situation................. 11 Table 4: Review Findings Relating to EMI support.................................... 12 Table 5: Students‟ challenges ..................................................................... 25 Table 6: Students‟ coping strategies and suggestions for teachers .............. 26 Figure 1: The students‟ purposes for learning English ................................. 23 Figure 2: Areas of using English students often face challenges .................. 25
  • 10. 1 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION I.1. Rationale Globalization and internationalization, combined with the rapid growth of the internet, have resulted in the spread of English worldwide. Strongly influenced by this phenomenon, many Asian countries, where English is not officially used, have adopted diverse educational policies that aim to support students in acquiring higher levels of English proficiency and preparing them for better future jobs. While Content-based Instruction (CBI) or Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) refers to an approach where language teaching is organized around the informational content rather than a linguistic syllabus (Richards & Rodgers, 2001), EMI is mostly used for educational programs at a tertiary level where professional knowledge is taught through English with the purpose of enhancing students‟ knowledge-specific ability as well as their English (Coleman, 2006). In Vietnam, English is considered as an indispensable subject in all universities‟ curriculum. There is a rapidly growing tendency for English to be adopted as the medium of instruction, even when a majority of the population speaks a local language. However, when EMI courses have expanded, they do not get immediate success. At Hanoi University of Science (hereafter HUS), English is a compulsory subject for all students of all faculties. EMI is considered a preferable program to make learners understood in a workplace context, or have an advantageous job over the others. For the second-year physics students, they have one year to be familiar with the ways of studying at university. Learners try their best to improve their English as well as the knowledge of subjects; however, not all students have succeeded. The questions of the ways the students choose to overcome are left unanswered in this context. There have been not much attempts in investigating this issue. Hence, it is greatly important to research the matter intensively.
  • 11. 2 Hopefully, the findings of this research could contribute to understand more about learners, to enhance teaching and learning EMI program at the institution, and to lay a foundation for subsequent research. The following sections will briefly describe the aim of study, research questions, its scope, method and the outline of the thesis. I.2. Aims of the study The study aimed to investigate the EMI program, especially related to the learners. It identified strategies that Vietnamese students used in order to deal with challenges they faced. Based on these findings, recommendations to promote learners‟ proficiency and improve the implementation of EMI policies are made. I.3. Research questions In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims, the following research questions are raised in the study: 1. What are Physics students‟ challenges in taking an EMI program? 2. What coping strategies have they been taking? I.4. Scope of the study Teaching and learning a new EMI program in Vietnam are broad topics, and they cannot be wholly discussed within the framework of this paper. Thus, this minor thesis attempted to investigate only the challenges which students faced and their coping strategies in the implementation of EMI. The subjects of the study included thirteen Physics students in a class at the Department of International Standard Program (ISP) at Hanoi University of Science (HUS) who were not English majored but learning the EMI program, therefore, the findings of this study might not be generalized to all Vietnamese students. I.5. Method of the study This study employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods in
  • 12. 3 order to get a more detailed and comprehensive picture about what was investigated. Questionnaires and interviews were needed to collect information on students‟ difficulties and their strategies on how to learn successfully in the content and language integrated learning program. I.6. Design of the study This study is composed of five following parts, outlined as follows: Chapter I: Introduction presents the background, aims, research questions, the significance, the scope, and the design of the study. Chapter II: Literature review, conceptualizes the framework of the study through the discussion of issues and ideas on theories of learners‟ challenges in the implementation of EMI. Chapter III: Methodology, presents the context, the methodology used in this study including the context, the subject, the data collection instruments, data collection procedure, and data analysis. Chapter IV: Findings consists of a comprehensive analysis of the data. Chapter V: Discussions and Conclusion offers a discussion and a summary of the key findings, recommendations, limitations, and future directions for further study. In summary, this chapter has briefly introduced the issue this thesis will address, the study it was based on, and the outline summary of the thesis. The following chapter will review the ELT literature that provides theoretical underpinnings for the study and address EMI students‟ challenges and coping strategies.
  • 13. 4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW The previous chapter has provided the overview of the thesis, its aims and structure. In this chapter, the researcher will present some theoretical backgrounds that necessitate the realization of this research and provide the related literature for the study. II.1. The EMI context In this section, the researcher begins by analyzing the context of EMI in the world and in Vietnam. II.1.1. Context of EMI in the world In reality, the concept of EMI is not new in the world but not easy to define (Manh, 2012). A review of literature indicates that EMI has been called different names such as content and language integrated learning (CLIL), content-based teaching (CTB), immersion or language as a medium of instruction. EMI means learners acquire both the subject content and target language in a natural setting (Sert, 2008). Numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using a non-native language to instruct at tertiary level in different contexts at the micro level. Specifically, researchers aim to explore students‟ challenges and their coping strategies about EMI. For example, in Europe, Airey & Linder (2006) concern about students‟ experience of learning university physics in Sweden. In Africa, a recent case study by Marie (2013) about students‟ strategies that multilingual university students in Rwanda use in order to deal with complex academic materials. Findings reveal that students have multiple coping strategies that enable them to complete academic tasks given through the medium of English. Regarding Asian contexts, many reports on the implementation of EMIs reflect leaners‟ challenges and their ways to overcome the situations. For example, Williams (2015) has a systematic review of English Medium Instruction (EMI) and offers learners‟ challenges in the South Korean
  • 14. 5 higher education context. In Taiwanese context, Chang (2010) and Wu (2006) reveal that students encounter difficulties understanding the subject content and expressing opinions fluently. It can be concluded from the above previous studies that to implement EMI successfully, the role of implementers (school managers, students, and teachers) and community attitudes are essential. Also, EMI has a vast influence on aspects of life as it determines who will participate in power and wealth (Tsui & Tollefson, 2004). Each government should, therefore, be cautious of planning and implementing language policy in general and language in education policy in particular as the policy made will profoundly impact on the development, the stability, the identity and justice of the nation. The next section examines the context of Vietnam with reference to its agendas to adopt EMI in order to clarify the broader policy landscape within which the study occurs. II.1.2. Context of EMI in Vietnam Regarding the Vietnamese context, although the idea of using EMI at tertiary level is considered a timely and wise decision of the government and the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) as a response to the globalization and regionalization, its implementation is a long way off (Manh, 2012). It is a truism that there is always a gap between an idea and putting it into operation. However, the feasibility of this project must be considered carefully or some aspects may have long-lasting negative consequences to the stability and development of the country politically, socio-linguistically and economically. Such issues as whether EMI guarantees the students‟ acquisition of both language skills and subject contents at university levels, whether EMI imposes impacts on the inequality among different regions, that is, mountainous versus plain areas, whether EMI benefits a majority or a minority of people in the
  • 15. 6 country, whether EMI marginalizes the disadvantaged student from enjoying an equal chance to a qualified HEI, whether EMI negatively influences the development of the mother tongue if the future generation rejects L1 (first language) and prefers L2 (second language) should be raised prior to the implementation of the project. The term of EMI is vague. As a first step, it should be clarified to reach a convergent understanding in Vietnamese pedagogy. In fact, this notion can be interpreted in practice different dimensions. For example, EMI may mean teaching all subjects in the curriculum in English including physical education, military education, Communism, Marxism, Ho Chi Minh thoughts. EMI may mean only professional courses are taught in English and other courses are free to use Vietnamese for instruction. In addition, EMI may mean giving lectures in English, yet students using Vietnamese to communicate with peers or lecturers and submitting assignments in Vietnamese. These different interpretations may bring about different results. A number of potential difficulties have arisen when implementing the proposal. The issues of EMI at tertiary level have, unfortunately, been totally neglected in the literature in the local context. Almost no scientific research on this topic in Vietnam has been published so far. It is reasonable to assume that the implementation of any proposal should be based on firm theoretical foundations or conceptual models which have been proved by empirical studies rather than on subjective determination of a few top leaders. Therefore, contextual perspectives need careful consideration. Kaplan and Baldauf (1997; 2005) contend that the success of language -in -education policy depends much on bottom up efforts. They also suggest these following policy objectives to be deemed at the implementation level of language policy in education including access, personnel, curriculum, methods and materials, resourcing, community and evaluation, which can be summarized in the table:
  • 16. 7 Table 1: Language-in- Education Policy Goals (Kaplan & Baldauf, 2005, p. 1014) Language- in-education policy and planning goals Explanation Access Policy Who learns, what, and when? Personnel Policy Where do teachers come from and how are they trained? Curriculum Policy What is the objective in language teaching / planning? Methods and Materials Policy What methodology and what materials are employed over what durations? Community Policy How is everything paid for? Resourcing Policy Who is consulted / involved? Evaluation Policy What is the connection between assessment on the one hand and methods and materials that define the educational objectives on the other? Towards the success of meeting the aforementioned goals, Kaplan and Baldauf (2005) propose that success “largely depends on policy decisions related to the teachers, the courses of study and materials and the resources to be made available” (p.1014). However, these areas are developed differently in a particular nation “depending on how that nation‟s education system operates” (Kaplan & Baldauf 1997, p. 217). In the light of Kaplan and Baldauf (1997; 2005)‟s suggestions, in the following part, the article presents the current situations and critiques the feasibility of the project in terms of teachers and students, curriculums, and possible impacts on society.
  • 17. 8 Although it has been previously mentioned that the project implementation should be based on publicized empirical or scientific studies, such evidence is absent in the local setting. Therefore, most of the data for the argument is drawn from mass media sources i.e. newspapers, conferences, and government documents which are not tested empirically. The next part of our review focuses selectively on challenges facing students in new EMI contexts. II.2. Challenges facing EMI students This section will review the EMI students‟ challenges before focusing on their coping strategies in the next section. It is stated that three areas are identified: 1) the students‟ language proficiencies; 2) the varying demands of different academic subjects; and 3) a facilitative body which can support EMI implementation (Byun, K., Chu, H., Kim, M., Park, I., Kim, S., & Jung, 2011). This section presents three tables summarizing the challenges identified in the review of Williams (2015). First, Williams summarizes the results based upon the students‟and the instructors‟language proficiencies as the following table: Table 2: Review Findings Regarding the Students’ Language Proficiencies (Williams, 2015, p. 7) Area Authors Challenges Location Methods Language Proficiency Chang (2010) Students did not comprehend everything as the professors‟ proficiency was insufficient. Taiwan Mixed Evan & Morrison (2011) Initial exposure to EMI a challenge. Hong Kong Mixed Hellekjær (2010) Grasping concepts is a challenge in L1 and L2. Students have difficulty in comprehension. Germany Quantitative Kim (2011) Students favored L1 to explain Korea Mixed
  • 18. 9 Area Authors Challenges Location Methods complex material. Students were not in favor of EMI as it hampered depth of learning. Manh(2012) 70% of freshman students had low proficiency: few lecturers had adequate oral skills. Vietnam Review Mellion (2008) Students were not satisfied with instructor proficiency and wanted them to obtain a CPE certificate as proof of competency to teach. Netherlands Qualitative This seems to be a global problem in EFL and ESL contexts and it is talked about as a challenge. This implies that globally students lack the proficiency. As seen, this lack of proficiency has negative consequences: lack of comprehension (Chang, 2010), and reliance on the L1 (Kim, 2011). Earlier studies on the effects of EMI have mostly agreed that the English proficiency of students is one of the most significant factors in determining the outcomes of EMI courses (Stryker & Leaver, 1997; Swain & Johnson, 1997). Stryker and Leaver (1997) suggested that CBI could be implemented effectively when the learners‟ proficiency is above the threshold level. In particular, English proficiency is considered more important in late immersion than in early immersion (Swain & Johnson, 1997). In early immersion, language development takes place along with basic concept learning. In late immersion, however, subject content learning occurs with the improvement of Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), where a larger cognitive capacity is required to comprehend and process abstract and complex academic concepts (Cummins, 1984). Studies in African and Asian countries extend the concerns to students‟ language abilities (Byun et al., 2011; Huong, 2010; Kyeyune, 2010; Manh, 2012;
  • 19. 10 Tsuneyoshi, 2005). Kyeyune (2010), for example, observing classroom interactions, reports the frustrating communication failures in Ugandan classrooms because of students‟ low English proficiency. Several studies conducted in Korean settings also presented similar results. Kang (2005) examined students‟ perceptions of EMI in engineering education and noticed that students proficient in English are more positive about the learning outcomes of EMI, and less proficient students believe they need practical support from teaching assistants. After questionnaire survey and interview with 130 college students, Bang (2013) also noted that while students at a lower level of English proficiency showed a great deal of anxiety, worrying about their lack of English proficiency and limited comprehension of the subject content, one of the benefits Korean college students gained after taking an EMI class is a lower level of anxiety and the enhanced motivation of English learning. In a Korean medical school context, Joe (2010) investigated the relationship between students‟ English proficiency and ability to comprehend EMI lectures. In this study, language proficiency did not influence students‟ ability to comprehend lectures. Rather, background knowledge measured by their pre-test scores played a key role in their lecture comprehension measured by their post-test scores. Joe comments that considering Korean contexts, most students enrolled in medical school might be intermediate in English proficiency. Thus, it is possible that background knowledge, rather than language proficiency, is more influential in determining their ability to comprehend the lectures. The results of this study support Clapham (1996) in that when the content is field-specific and the students are intermediate in language proficiency, background knowledge is more important than language proficiency itself. Another concern emerging from this review, regarding this second area, relates to EMI situation.
  • 20. 11 Table 3: Review Findings Relating to Academic EMI Situation (Williams, 2015, p. 10) Area Authors Challenges Location Methods Academic EMI situation Airey & Linder (2006) The asking and answering of questions by students limited. They struggled to follow lectures and take notes. Sweden Quantitative Chang (2010) Students from technical disciplines faced more difficulties in comprehending lectures than students from management related disciplines. They had limited vocabulary and slow reading speed. Taiwan Mixed Karabinar (2008) L1 vital tool for acquiring the content knowledge. It made the process easier for students. Turkey Quantitative Kim, Son & Sohn (2009) Majority of students stated that EMI courses experienced were worse than the same course in Korean. Offering Korean supplementary material deters the students‟ English development. Korea Quantitative Somer (2001) L1 and L2 used for teaching, as students had low proficiency and comprehension problems. Turkey Quantitative Sert (2008) EMI was ineffective in providing academic content. It had a negative influence on students‟ critical thinking ability. Turkey Quantitative Tamtan et al. (2012) Faculty fail to develop both linguistic and academic content. Students‟ insufficient language knowledge and lack of interest is a threat to cultural identity. Europe, Asia, & Africa Review
  • 21. 12 The final challenge causing implementational problems is limited resources (Dang et al., 2013; Huong, 2010; Manh, 2012). Table 4: Review Findings Relating to EMI support (Williams, 2015, p. 14) Area Authors Challenges Location Methods EMI support Byun et al. (2011) There has been little assistance for students and instructors who lack adequate English skills to meet the demands of EMI courses. Lack of support is due to financial constraints. Students had to seek and pay for own support Korea Mixed Chang (2010) Problems with a skills based support program. Students not satisfied with a General English course as it did not meet their EAP needs. Faculty needs support in L2 oral presentation skills. Taiwan Mixed Doiz et al. (2012) Lack of support from the University authorities. Support needs to be in the form of economic support which provides competent teaching staff. Lack of insufficient support has been a trend throughout Europe. Spain Qualitative Ibrahim (2001) There is no system in place to support the students outside the Indonesia Review
  • 22. 13 Area Authors Challenges Location Methods EMI classroom. Joe & Lee (2012) Supportive courses are prevalent on ESL courses, but are lacking on EFL courses. EFL students need more support than ESL students because they have less contact with English and fewer English resources when out of the classroom environment. Korea Quantitative Kirkgöz (2009) EAP curriculum inadequate in effectively preparing the students to deal with the academic content. Turkey Mixed Mellion (2008) Funding was attributed to be a reason for the lack of support. Netherland Qualitative Baldauf, Kaplan, Kamwangamalu, and Bryan (2011), examining several Asian countries‟ language policies, conclude that “funding for normal programmes, the training of teachers and money for textbooks are all inadequate” (p. 318). Besides, students‟ language difficulties seem to be exacerbated when coupled with the lack of important implementation resources such as competent English – speaking lecturers and an effective individualized support scheme (Tsuneyoshi, 2005). In Vietnam, there was a study investigating about challenges facing EMI students. The results indicated that students “seemed to face multiple challenges, including the unclear requirements of the program, low language skills, insufficient resources and support”. (Nha, 2014, p. 286).
  • 23. 14 Constantinides (1992) asserted that international students who choose to study in America are often the brightest students in their home countries and are also very motivated students. However, proficiency in the English language may be particularly problematic for most international students. For example, the way that English is taught in China is more through writing than through a speaking form. As a result, many Chinese international students know English grammar and vocabulary, but have a difficult time with conversational English (Wan, 1999). Further, Chinese students often have difficulty answering questions verbally and writing essays (Feng, 1991). International students have other problems such as understanding lectures, taking notes, taking part in class discussions, and writing papers (Huntley, 1993). These students may also have difficulty in understanding English American slang, accents, idioms, and jokes. These difficulties with the conversational usage of English or cultural language can create a great deal of academic stress in university classrooms, particularly when communication and participation are encouraged (Bolanle, 1996). International students may think that they are incompetent in conversational English to participate in class. Writing can be another problem for international students as well. Interestingly, Arden-Close suggested learning strategies available to foreign language learners (point-driven strategies, rather than information-driven strategies) to comprehend lectures more effectively. Following this issue, the researcher will review previous studies about students‟ coping strategies in the following section. II.3. Previous studies on coping strategiesin multilingual higher education This section will specifically and selectively examine some studies on students‟ coping strategies. According to Johnson, Scholes and Wittington (2008) strategy within a management context encompass a plan for both direction and scope of an organisation. It means that available resources are
  • 24. 15 planned to be used efficiently, often within a challenging environment. Seen from the perspective of students in higher education, their scope could vary between trying to learn as much as possible using available resources to reach their goals, to spending a minimum of time on a task to pass an upcoming exam. Coping strategies become necessary if available resources are not felt to be enough to reach personal goals and satisfy assessment requirements. Here, I see them as a set of options which students may choose from in a more or less conscious way to overcome learning problems in a multilingual setting. The medium of instruction in school dictates to a large extent the attainment of knowledge and skills at all levels of the education system. It can promote, stagnate or even stifle the acquisition of knowledge and skills that are pertinent to development (Brock-Utne et al. 2004; Brock-Utne and Alidou 2006; Webb 2004; Vavrus 2003; Kyeyune 2010). As a response to challenges posed by the use of the English medium in higher education, considerable research has been undertaken to investigate how students meet and adjust to such challenges (Andrada 2006; Evans and Morrison 2011, 2010; Praxton 2009; Ramsey 1999; Van der Walt and Dornbrack 2011). Although some of the studies investigate foreign students trying to adjust to the demands of English as a medium of instruction in main Anglophone countries such as the US and Australia (Andrada 2006, 2009; Ramsey 1999; Ramsey, Raven and Hall 2005), their findings seem to be in line with those studies carried out in less English speaking contexts (Björkman 2011; Evans and Morrisson 2010, 2011; Ljsland 2010; Praxton 2009; Van der Walt and Dornbrack 2011). When investigating how students respond to challenges caused by having English as a medium of instruction in Hong Kong, Evans and Morrisson (2011) suggest that by combining practices such as hard work, strong motivation, effective learning strategies and peer networks, students manage to
  • 25. 16 overcome academic problems such as understanding technical vocabulary, comprehending lectures, and meeting disciplinary requirements. In a different geographical context but similar linguistic setting where English is second/ foreign language to students, Praxton (2009) identified translation to be an important learning practice that naturally and inevitably occurs in the South African context, in classroom or in peer learning groups since they switch from English to their local languages in order to better understand new concepts. The researcher believes that unless students explored concepts through various languages, they would not really develop their own personal construction and an enriched understanding of them. In a related context, Van der Walt and Dornbrack (2011) investigated ways of coping with higher education by bilingual students at Stellenbosch University where Afrikaans is used alongside English as language of teaching and learning. In their study, translation was generally found to be time consuming. Thus, their bilingual respondents preferred to explain subject content in their own mundane words rather than through translation. Their study further identified that the bilingual requirements and context in which it took place afford “trans-language to construct meaning” (Garcia 2009:14) instead of forming barriers for learning. Furthermore, they mentioned relying upon friends and relatives as “funds of knowledge” (Moll 2007:274) as yet another successful strategy to deal with the challenges of higher education studies in a second or foreign language of instruction. Thus, according to Van der Walt and Dornbrack (2011), the use of more than one language in the researched higher education institution potentially assists rather than diminishes the development of academic discourse. From the reviewed studies, it is clear that the context has a bearing on which strategies learners adopt in order to facilitate learning. Still on the educational uses of languages, researchers identified the importance of exploratory talk in the
  • 26. 17 development of learners‟ understanding of new concepts (Barnes 2008; Mercer and Dawes 2008). Exploratory talk promotes interaction and flourishes in mutually supportive groups. By exposing lack of knowledge and floating new and incomplete ideas, such talk presents scaffolding opportunities for a careful and knowledgeable facilitator and can culminate in knowledge sharing and development (Barnes 2008; Mercer 1995). Other studies also examined the contribution of peer network and collaboration as well as the ensuing talk as practices that are likely to mediate cognitively demanding academic concepts (Li et al. 2010; Mercer 2008). The present study adds to the previous studies by investigating students‟ coping strategies in the flux of change from learning in most students‟ first foreign language, French, to learning in their second foreign language, English. In summary, this chapter has reviewed three important bodies of literature to provide background to investigate the challenges facing students as well as their strategies to overcome the situation in learning the EMI program. The next chapter will describe the methodological background for the study as well as the description of the study design.
  • 27. 18 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY In the previous chapter, the theoretical matters related to the topic have been introduced. In order to see how they work in real learning environment, the main contents of the chapter include the context and the subjects of the study, the research questions, the data collection instruments, the data collection procedure, and the data analysis procedure. Also, this chapter mentions the advantages and disadvantages when the researcher used those instruments and data analysis procedure. III.1. Context of the study This paper investigated an EMI program in a cooperative program named International Standard Program (ISP). The study was conducted at Hanoi University of Science (HUS), a state university located in Nguyen Trai Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. HUS is quite famous for providing good at training programs in English, for example, Honor Program for Talented Students; Advanced Program: and International Standard Program (ISP). ISP covers several different majors such as Physics, Biology, and Geology. Every year there are thousands of new students enrolling in these faculties; these faculties, hence, receive a lot of attention from the university. At HUS, programs in English are considered extremely important ones to all students; therefore, students have to study other subjects in English during a year at HUS. English and majors are two priorities equipped for students in the search for a competitive job. That is why HUS always looks for new ways to improve the quality of teaching and learning subjects in English. New programs, therefore, have been launched and adjusted to better meet the global changes. Currently, a program called EMI is being introduced to help students in learning other subjects in English. Learners can interact with lecturers in a virtual reality English environment. Laboratory and
  • 28. 19 classroom lessons are altered to help learners overcome their shyness and weaknesses when communicating with foreigners. That is, the university principal puts emphasis on learner‟s achievement both in learning content and language. In fact, after a first year, compared to non-major students from other universities, their English tends to be better; however, the efficiency is not up to educators‟ expectations. Learners still face up with many difficulties during the program. III.2. Research questions As mentioned in section I.3, my study was carried out to find out the answer to the following questions: 1. What are Physics students‟ challenges in taking an EMI program? 2. What coping strategies have they been taking? III.3. The study This section will describe participants of the study, the data collection instruments including questionnaires and interviews followed a procedure. III.3.1. Participants Firstly, the populations for questionnaires were thirteen second year Physics students in Faculties of ISP at HUS. Most of them are young Vietnamese students entering university after they have finished high school. They had completed the first-year language program at HUS. Secondly, all of them were invited to participate in the interview however 2 of them were willing to take part in. All students have studied English for at least three years, and are going to finish their second semester of the second year at HUS at the time of the study. III.3.2. Data collection instruments To reach the objectives of the study, questionnaire was used as the first tool for data collection in this research. According to Wilson and McLean
  • 29. 20 (1994), questionnaire is a widely used and useful instrument for collecting survey information, providing structured, often numerical data, being able to be administered without the presence of the researcher, and often being comparatively straightforward to analyse. Hence, it would certainly be valuable for helping the author explore the subjects‟ challenges and strategies. Extracting relevant items from the earlier studies, the researcher consulted my supervisor in the field, and modified the items considering the study context. Some items from the questionnaire were based on Nha‟s project implemented in 2014 in New South Wales University. This is because Nha‟s project was conducted in a similar context of an EMI program in the same university. After a repeated process of item extraction, 10 questionnaire items were finalized including both closed-ended and open-ended items. In the second stage, interviews were conducted as a flow-on step from questionnaires to provide deeper data of EMI program implementation. There are 27 students in the class, the researcher received only 13 completed questionnaires and only 2 of them gave me the contact for the follow-up the interview. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to elaborate on the students‟ challenges and their coping strategies which could be missed from questionnaires. About language for data collection, the instruments included Vietnamese student questionnaires and Vietnamese interview questions. I will discuss the reasons for this language choice and the procedures to translate the research instruments. First, the questionnaires were written in English, and translated into Vietnamese to give the participants a choice of language which was more comfortable for them (Le, 2012). However when the researcher delivered the questionnaire, all participants chose Vietnamese item to avoid misunderstanding of the questions. Second, the interview questions were also translated into
  • 30. 21 Vietnamese. The participants could select either English or Vietnamese to be the language of the interviews. The researcher asked them to make a selection, all participants preferred Vietnamese. It was likely that as it was our mother tongue, they felt more comfortable to converse in it. (Le, 2012). To translate the data collection instrument, I did the initial translation of the questionnaire and interview. The Vietnamese version was then back translated by a teacher who held a Master degree in English language teaching. The next step was to compare the original English and the back translated versions of the questionnaire and interview to ensure their equivalence (Nha, 2014). Language for data analysis was also Vietnamese. I translated the data excerpts that were integrated in the finding and discussion with special attention to the meaning of the messages rather than the sentence structures (Bashiruddin, 2013) from Vietnamese into English; and I represented the English version (translated version) in the final report. Detailed procedures for conducting student questionnaires and interviews will be discussed in the following section. III.3.3. Data collection procedure The study has taken place during the first semester of the academic year for two months. The data collection instruments employed in order to collect data included questionnaires and interviews. The student questionnaire was delivered for 27 students in a class and obtained 13 respondents. To write good questions, this project needed to pilot the questionnaire. Initially, a paper questionnaire of 10 questions was given to a teacher and MA students at a group meeting to get feedback on structure, content, word choice and instruction. A lot of valuable feedback from these experienced survey users was received during and after the meeting. For example, it was suggested that the detail information of student should not be put at the beginning of the survey because it is optional.
  • 31. 22 Besides, the item 4 (What do you think about the important of learning other subjects in English? – Very important/ Important/ Not very important/ Not important) should be left out because students seemed answer this question without much thinking. After their informed consent, semi- structured individual interviews were conducted in order to allow respondents to express themselves as exhaustively as possible on questions related to the students‟ challenges and strategies. Also, the interviews helped the researcher to follow-up some of the questions or issues that were raised from the questionnaire. Each interview lasted 4 minutes on average. The researcher asked the respondents for permission to tape record them and they accepted. The questions were formulated both in Vietnamese and English and the respondents were allowed to respond in the language of their choice. Ethical considerations such as informed consent and confidentiality were emphasized throughout the data collection process. To abide by the anonymity principle, respondents in the interview data set are identified as SS1, SS2 etc. (SS stands for students‟ answers while the number designates the respondents as they were participating in the interviews). The quotes for the present study are selected support the identified themes and sub-themes (Braun & Clarke 2006) and show variation in strategies employed. The researcher hoped that the data could shed light on strategies that students use in order to cope with their academic subjects. In brief, this chapter provides a detail description of the instruments employed by the researcher in the study and the process of collecting data by these tools. The next chapter will provide the findings about the students‟ challenges and their coping strategies to promote English when they are learning the English Medium program.
  • 32. 23 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS In this chapter, the findings are reflected through the data of the conducted questionnaire and interview. Selected questionnaire and interview responses are used to uncover, support and illustrate strategies used to mediate learning. This comprehensive analysis, which explores, what challenges students face and what students‟ coping strategies are, will lay a firm foundation for a discussion and conclusion in the following part of the study. The chapter is divided into two major sections: the findings of questionnaire and the findings of interview. IV.1. The findings of questionnaire The researcher delivered 27 sets of questionnaire and received 13 ones. The two first questions in the survey were intended to elicit background information on the students including gender, their English background (learning time). Overall, the number of female students was similar to that of male students (7:6 respectively, total 27, missing 14). The numbers of years students spent on English ranged from 3-10. Most students had between three and seven years of learning English. It could be seen that students studied some of the different English curricula currently implemented in the Vietnamese education system. Physic students at HUS are asked to give the reason why they learn English. The questions consist of some closed options and one open option for other responses. The selected responses were showed in the following figure. 46.1 30.8 15.4 7.7 Because my major was taught in English Because I am interested in English Because it‟s useful for my future job Because I want to travel abroad Others Figure 1: The students’ purposes for learning English
  • 33. 24 The figure 1 shows that most students took the English course because their major was taught in English (46.1%). This proves that they paid attention to the course‟s requirement. Coming to the second significant reason is because they are interested in learning English with 30.8 % of students. In addition to the listed reasons, the students are also asked about the time they spent learning English outside classroom to get an objective reflection about the time allocation. The most answer fluctuates from 15 minutes to 2 hours per day. Some students give the answer: “0 hour” that means they only learn English when there are English lessons in the class. In short, students‟ learning purposes and their learning time were elicited in the two questions. In this part, major findings were presented with two main categories: students‟ difficulties and coping strategies The subsequent section will present challenges facing students. IV.1.1. Stu ents’ challenges Question 6 asked students to what areas of using English they often have issues. The results were counted and shown in the figure 2. The results indicate that a majority of the students thought that listening was of the most difficult skills (11), following by pronunciation (9), writing (7), speaking (6), vocabulary (4) and reading as well as grammar (1). Students often had trouble with listening skill and pronunciation rather than reading and grammar.
  • 34. 25 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Figure 2: Areas of using English students often face challenges Question 7 in the questionnaire elicited the detailed challenges students face when they learn Physics in English. The respondents could select several options that were applicable to them. Table 4 summaries the results. Table 5: Students’ challenges Question 7 Number of answers What are the challenges you often face in the course? 29 a. I don‟t understand the requirements of the program 1 b. My language skills are poor 9 c. I am not motivated to learn English 6 d.It takes too much time to prepare for the class 3 e. I find it difficult to understand the lectures when they were instructed in English 8 f. Others 2 The data show that the most challenges for students in learning EMI course. Most students revealed that they encountered many difficulties relating to insufficient language knowledge because of the lack of English ability (9 responses), which may result in a lack of interest or they are not motivated to
  • 35. 26 learn English (6 responses). They also found it difficult to understand the lectures when they were instructed in English (8 responses). IV.1.2. Stu ents’ coping strategies Question 8 and 9 in the questionnaire elicited information about the ways students used to improve their English. The respondents could select several options that were applicable to them. The selected responses were counted and a summary of the results is provided in table. Table shows that students have a lot of coping strategies to learn the course better. Many students spent time learning outside classroom and worked in pairs or groups (7 responses) while not many students asked the teacher for help (1 response). Of the six responses in the Others option, three respondents said they often took part in English club outside school, listening to music and reading books, two emphasized talking to foreigners and working as sellers at supermarket. The remaining one respondent said that he listened to the radio and read materials. Table 6: Students’ coping strategies and suggestions for teachers Question Number of answers What are your methods/ coping strategies to help your learning English in the content course more effective? 17 8a. I spend a lot of time learning outside classroom 3 8b. I ask for the teacher if I need the help 1 8c. Practice with friends in pairs and in groups 7 8d. Others 6 What suggestion do you have for your teacher? 32 9a. More interaction between teacher and students in class 10 9b. Teachers should use more games in class 12
  • 36. 27 Question Number of answers 9c.There are more activities and clubs for students to practice English both outside and inside classroom 12 9d. Others 0 A question about the suggestion for the teacher was shown in the table. The responses specified that they wanted to learn in the class with more games. It is very useful if there are more activities and clubs for students to practice English both outside and inside classroom. A smaller group of 10 respondents wanted more interaction between teacher and students in class. However, the weaknesses of a questionnaire tool with provided options is that it does not allow the respondents to fully express their opinions (Gillham, 2000) or enough space for comprehensive description of their opinions. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the issues raised in the questionnaire findings in more depth in the follow-up interviews. IV.2. The findings of interview A list of 6 questions was drawn up to collect the data about student‟s learning. 2 Physics students were willing to take part in the interview. In fact, the students did learn EMI course one year ago and they were familiar to the program. IV.2.1. Stu ents’ challenges Findings from the interview show that two major challenges emerged: students‟ English abilities and comprehending lectures. Regarding the question, “What were the main challenges for you?”, the issue of students‟ difficulties was further explained in the interview data. Firstly, most students revealed that they encountered many difficulties relating to insufficient language knowledge because of the lack of English ability, which may result in a lack of interest.
  • 37. 28 Although students believed that EMI was valuable in improving language proficiency, students did not comprehend everything their teachers said. I would like to use the first language to explain complex materials. I think the first language is a vital tool for acquiring the content knowledge. (SS2) Secondly, a concern emerging from the interview data was that students have more difficulties in comprehending lectures. Furthermore, they said that when English was used, the asking and answering of questions in English was limited. They also struggled to follow lectures and take notes. This was one of the most challenges existing in EMI course because it had the negative influence on students‟ critical thinking ability. IV.2.2. Stu ents’ coping strategies Regarding the question, “What did you do to improve the situation?, the data noted the coping strategies (group work; extensive reading; lecture attendance, completing assigned work and memorization) that physics students had to adopt in order to deal with the challenges. Each strategy could be effective to this person but ineffective to others, I discussed interviewees‟ opinions and ways to overcome their situations. The first coping strategy is group work. Group work Firstly, the data revealed that the students perceived group work to be an effective method that allowed them to work with peers, get feedback, and apply their knowledge. Therefore, they are more motivated and could acquire knowledge more quickly: I feel comfortable when I work with my close friends because I can raise my voice and share information without hesitation. We take part in a game
  • 38. 29 where there are a lot of new words we have to learn by heart and I try to remember as much as possible to be the winner. I am often shy when the teachers call or ask question even though I know the answer at that time. In the class, group work is also a good way but I see this method is not often used by my teacher. I do not know why, I think this activity is time-consuming for teacher. (SS2) In my opinion, making clear issues in lectures is very important. I think group-work is good at doing exercises or but sometimes I think it is boring. (SS1) The students‟ reactions to group work indicate that it had both negative and positive influences on their perceptions of learning. The following section will present the second coping strategy: extensive reading. Extensive reading Students said that extensive reading is efficient in helping them to understand their courses. I think the course is not too difficult. Although I do not have anyone to explain me, I try to do it by myself, I search on internet, on other notes from previous years or I leave it as it is. Here, reading material seems to be a rewarding strategy. (SS2) She also explains her whole coping process: First, I often ask my friends who know or who understand very well the issues we are studying. Then, I check the dictionary for difficult words I do not know. Next, I can ask the teacher to translate in other languages if she or he knows others. These are my three procedures to overcome the problem. (SS2) Other strategies mentioned by one student include doing his best to upgrade his knowledge of English and to keep informed by listening to
  • 39. 30 news and other broadcasts in English, as well as reading newspapers. He also read books related to his field of study. I often listen to the radio or try to understand some information broadcasting such as BBC every morning and sometimes I read journals or newspapers and as a student I try to read books about my subjects or courses I study here at the university. (SS1) This student seems to be aware of globalisation and he is motivated to learn a language that will help him in the future. Considering the academic benefits of extensive reading, some students acknowledged the importance of having access to the internet where they get additional material as exemplified in the following extract. Sometimes I check in a dictionary or consult other students who are more able to understand than me and sometimes even though I am not able to understand very well, I try to, try to do understand deeply as the rules of academic regulation states. (SS2) When the researcher asked about activities outside classroom students used to improve your English, some students said: Of course, yes, I took part in the language programs organized by my friends‟ school. They often provided knowledge about some language issues as well as give chances for students to play games. Besides, I worked as a waiter in a restaurant where I used English to communicate with foreigners but not much. (SS1) According to the participants, extensive reading makes studying at higher education through the medium of English less problematic. Also, motivation to upgrade their English and hard work generally prove to be efficient coping strategies. The subsequent section will present the third coping strategy.
  • 40. 31 Lecture attendance, completing assigned work and memorization Further coping strategies that emerged from the interview data related to maximum attendance at lectures, completion of assigned work in due time and memorisation as exemplified in the following extracts: Yes, I pay attention to attend the lecture because I think the knowledge in the lectures at the class is very important. At home, I just revise and prepare the lesson before coming to the class. (SS2) The above mentioned response showed that lecture attendance and timely completion of assigned tasks are successful strategies. Chapter IV has presented the main findings from questionnaires and interviews. Basing on the findings collected, the students seemed to face multiple challenges but two major ones are students‟ English ability and comprehending lectures. To overcome these problems, students used many learning strategies such as: group work, extensive reading, lecture attendance, completing assigned work and memorization. In the next chapter, the findings presented in chapter IV will be revisited in combination with the literature to provide a broader picture of the EMI implementation in this study. It also offered a discussion and a summary of the key findings, recommendations, limitations, and future directions for further study.
  • 41. 32 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION This last chapter serves as a summary for the whole paper. The chapter is divided into four major sections. First, it presents the discussion of the study which revisits the major findings, comparing them with previous studies in the literature. Second, it addresses the key findings of the study. Third, it draws out implications to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English. Finally, the chapter presents the limitations of the study as for the author as well as her suggestions for further research into the EMI implementation. V.1. Discussion of key findings This section discusses the findings in the light of the existing literature. It does not simply summarise the findings in previous chapter (chapter IV). The section also mentions some methods related to students‟ coping strategies. In the study, the findings indicate that students face two particular challenges. (1) The first major one is students‟ own English abilities. Both interview and survey findings mentioned this challenge. In the EMI literature, the most frequently-quoted cause is low English ability (Byun 2011; Williams 2015; Ibrahim 2001; Manh 2012; Some 2001; Tamtan 2012). In the study, the researcher notes that many students have low English proficiency. Lack of proficiency in students is a „threat‟ as it could lead to no rapport, no comprehension checks. Suggestions to address these issues include establishing an English threshold and improving students‟ English proficiency above that level (Byun et al., 2011); otherwise, students suffer from both language and content loss in EMI environments (Kyeyune, 2010; Mohamed, 2013). (2) The second major challenge, comprehending the lectures, was also presented in the interview data; and is familiar with findings in questionnaires. In the EMI literature review, international students often have problems
  • 42. 33 understanding lectures (Huntley, 1993). In the study, students find it difficult to understand the lectures when they were instructed in English. Students also expressed difficulty with new terminology and concepts. The nature of the subject matter of the course necessitated the introduction of a heavy load of new concepts. Difficulties in understanding lectures were due to the speed at which the professors talked and their accents. Participants in the study said: “Don't understand what teacher says,” “Difficult to understand their talking, especially terms and phrases,” “Some teachers spoke too fast and it was hard to keep following him/her,”. Finally, one participant mentioned that it was “Hard to participate when my classmates discuss some topics. They talk unclearly.” Therefore, to overcome challenges and to mediate cognitively demanding academic subjects, students employ a number of strategies. The most common strategies relate to group work, extensive reading, lecture attendance, completing assigned work and memorization. Findings in this study were aligned earlier findings as regards meeting and adjusting to challenges posed by English as the language of instruction (Evans and Morrisson 2010, 2011; Ljsland 2010; Praxton 2009; Van der Walt and Dornbrack 2011). The researcher would discuss some methods related to students‟ coping strategies. The first one involves collaboration in learning (Marie, 2013). Mentoring and peer support systems are ways of working to enhance understanding of the subject matter. Marie (2013, p. 7) draws on the answer of a student to illustrate this point: “The strategy that we use for example in our classroom there is mentoring. The person who understands the course well, he explains in Kinyarwanda in front of the class in the absence of the lecturer and sometimes if it is the practical work you may go to the internet in the library to bring some dictionaries and so on but most of the time we are using the mentoring in Kinyarwanda or French in our class if the class is taught in
  • 43. 34 English.” The above quote emphasises the importance of a student self-initiated mentorship system that has been developed over time to facilitate understanding of the courses. The second engagement method involves using familiar languages to clear up confusion and enhance learning. Existing studies support the use of a familiar language as a potentially relevant strategy to cope with the challenges posed by English as a medium of instruction. In their investigation into how students meet the demands of English in the Hong Kong context, Evans and Morrisson (2011), noted that peer collaboration and support was most relevant when mediated in Cantonese. Still in the Hong Kong context but with high school learners, Tam (2011) emphasizes the richness and relevance of instruction when both teachers and learners are conversant with the language of instruction. She states that teachers give more examples and generate a rich discourse when they use a familiar language. Similarly, learners engage in collaborative construction of knowledge through more animated classroom interactions. In his earlier research about classroom language use in Hong Kong‟s reformed English medium streams, Evans (2008) observes that the use of students‟ mother tongue to explain lesson content was a necessary, inevitable and understandable strategy in order to ensure complete understanding. On the African continent, Setati, Adler, Reed and Bapoo (2002) note that switching to a language that learners and teachers understand better assists them in the understanding of concepts and communication of ideas. As such, they maintain that such a strategy could support classroom communication and exploratory talk, a particular type of learner talk, meant to understand the subject matter. Drawing on her extensive research in Africa in the framework of Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa, Brock- Utne (2007) maintains that through the use of a familiar language,
  • 44. 35 students engage in meaningful conversations and build on previous knowledge. Considering the context in Vietnam where a disjunction exists between the language of instruction and the language of out of class communication (Vietnamese), students often use Vietnamese to clear misunderstanding, reduce confusion. Findings from the interview data in this study could also provide insight into the issue. (see section IV.2, chapter IV: findings). V.2. Summary of key findings The findings of this study will be summarized as follows. 1.The students seemed to face multiple challenges but two major ones are students‟ English ability and comprehending lectures. 2.The evidence suggests that students are able to overcome these and other problems through a combination of effective learning strategies: group work, extensive reading, lecture attendance, completing assigned work and memorization. V.3. Implications For students, in order for the EMI programs to achieve desired outcomes, students should be equipped with better communicative English skills. It would be effective if the student spent some amount of time preparing the lessons before coming to the class. Besides, the lecturers and administrators should consult the students about challenges using various methods. V.4. Limitations There are a number of limitations to the study that might affect the scope of these implications. First, the small number of 2 interviews cannot be the basis for generalizing from the findings. However, the aim of this qualitative study was to gain insights into students‟ experiences and not to seek generalization. Second, there were a lot of coping strategies students offered, the researcher still did not
  • 45. 36 evaluate how effective those strategies were; whether strategies were good or bad ones and whether participants‟ abilities were high or low. What is more, students‟ challenges are complexly difficult to classify into different types. Also, it is contextual and the findings might not be directly applicable to other groups of EMI students. With these limitations; all comments on the improvement are welcomed and appreciated. V.5. Suggestions for further research For further study, it is suggested that future research can either investigate deeper into this field or extend to find out how effective the coping strategies are. Researching about English Medium program is still a new and potential field that needs further investigations. The present study has investigated coping strategies that students use to handle the difficulties of having English as the medium of instruction. It could equally be of interesting further investigate teachers‟ support strategies in helping students to build up knowledge and understanding of their domain specific content learnt through the medium of English in HUS. This concluding chapter has presented the discussion of EMI implementation and major findings, comparing them with previous studies in the literature. Besides, it identifies areas for improvement in the study, draws out implication and briefly proposes directions for future research. It is hoped that the findings of this research could contribute to understand more about learners, to enhance teaching and learning EMI program at the institution.
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  • 50. 41 Praxton, I. J. M. (2009). “It is easy to learn when you using your home language but with English you need to start learning language before you get to the concept”: Bilingual concept development in an English medium university in South Africa. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 30(4), 345-359. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01434630902780731 Ramsey, A., Raven, J., and Hall, M. (2005). Changing the learning environment to promote deep learning approaches in first-year accounting students. Accounting Education. 13(4), 489–505. Ramsey, A., Raven, J., and Hall, M.(1999).Academic adjustement and learning processes: A comparison of international and local students in first-year university. Higher education research and development. 18 (1), 129-144. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0729436990180110 Sert, N. (2008). The language of instruction dilemma in the Turkish context. System, 36(1), 156 - 171. Setati, M., Adler, J., Reed, Y., and Bapoo, A. (2002). Incomplete journeys: code switching and other language practices in mathematics, science and English language classrooms in South Africa. Language and Education. 16, 128-149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500780208666824 Somer, S. (2001). The role of English-medium instruction in engineering and architecture courses at Anadolu University. Unpublished Master‟s Thesis. Billkent University, Ankara, Turkey. Tamtam, A. G., Gallagher, F., Olabi, A. G. & Naher, S. (2012). A Comparative Study of the Implementation of EMI in Europe, Asia and Africa. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 47, 1417-1425 Tsui, A. B., & Tollefson, J. W. (2004). The centrality of medium of instruction policy in sociopolitical processes. In A. B. Tsui & J. W. Tollefson (Eds.), Medium of instruction policies: Which agenda? Whose agenda? (pp. 1- 20). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
  • 51. 42 Tsuneyoshi, R. (2005). Internationalization strategies in Japan: The dilemmas and possibilities of study abroad programs using English. Journal of Research in International Education 4(1), 65-86. Van der Walt, C. and Dornbrack, J. (2011). Academic biliteracy in South African higher education: strategies and practices of successful students. Language, Culture and Curriculum. 24 (1), 89-104. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2011.554985. Vavrus, F. (2003). Post coloniality and English: Exploring language policy and the politics of development in Tanzania. TESOL Quarterly.36 (3),73-397. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3588418 Wan, G. (1999). THE learning experience of Chinese students in American universities: a cross-cultural perspective. College Student Journal, 35 (1), 28. Retrieved from Ebscohost. Webb, V. (2004). African languages as media of instruction in South Africa: Stating the case. Language Problems and Language Planning. 28(2), 147-173. http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lplp.28.2.04web Williams, E. (2015). Language policy, politics and development in Africa. In H. Coleman (Ed.), Dreams and Realities: Developing Countries and the English Language (pp. 39-58). London: British Council. Wu, W. S. (2006). Students' attitude toward EMI: Using Chung Hua University as an example. Journal of English and Foreign Language and Literature 4(1), 67 - 84.
  • 52. APPENDIX I QUESTIONNAIRE This survey questionnaire is designed to serve my research on the English Medium program in HUS. Your fulfillment of this survey questionnaire will be a great contribution to my thesis paper. In each question, you can circle the answer you choose. 1.You are: a. Male b. Female 2.How long have you learnt English? …………………………………… 3.What are your reasons for learning English? a.Because my major was taught in English b.Because I am interested in English. c.Because it‟s useful for my future job. d.Because I want to travel abroad e.Other (please specify) ……………………………………………………………………….. 4.How many hours do you often spend learning English outside classroom? ……………………………………………………………………….. 5.Do you have any difficulties in learning other subjects in English? a.Yes b.No 6.In what areas of using English do you often have issues? (You may select MORE THAN one answer if applicable) a.Reading b.Vocabulary c.Listening d.Grammar e.Speaking g. Pronunciation f. Writing
  • 53. 7.What are the challenges you often face in the course? (You may select MORE THAN one answer if applicable) a.I don‟t understand the requirements of the program b.My language skills are poor c.I am not motivated to learn English d.It takes too much time to prepare for the class e.I cannot understand the lectures when they were instructed in English f. Others (Please specify) ………………………………………………………………………… 8.What are your methods/ coping strategies to help your learning English in the content course more effective? (You may select MORE THAN one answer if applicable) a.I spend a lot of time learning outside classroom (self-study) b.I ask for the teacher if I need the help c.Practice with friends in pairs and in groups. d.Others (Please specify) ………………………………………………………………………… 9.What suggestion do you have for your teacher? (You may select MORE THAN one answer if applicable) a.More interaction between teacher and students in class b.Teachers should use more games in class c.There are more activities and clubs for students to practice English both outside and inside classroom d.Others (Please specify) ………………………………………………………………………… 10. If you are willing to be contacted for the follow-up interview about students‟ challenges in EMI course, please give me your contact details. Your contact number: ……………………………………………. Your email address: ……………………………………………. Thank you very much for your help!!!
  • 54. APPENDIX II BẢNG CÂU HỎI Bảng khảo sát này được tiến hành cho nghiên cứu về chương trình học các môn học khác bằng tiếng Anh ở trường Đại học khoa học tự nhiên. Rất cảm ơn sự đóng góp của các bạn đã tham gia hoàn thiện bảng khảo sát này. Với mỗi câu hỏi, bạn có thể khoanh câu trả lời bạn chọn. 1.Giới tính của bạn: a. Nam b. Nữ 2.Thời giạn bạn đã học Tiếng Anh là bao lâu? …..…………………… 3.Lý do bạn học Tiếng Anh là gì? a.Bởi vì chuyên ngành của tôi được dạy bằng Tiếng Anh b.Bởi vì tôi thích Tiếng Anh c.Bởi vì nó hữu ích cho công việc tương lai của tôi d.Bởi vì tôi muốn đi nước ngoài e.Lý do khác (xin nêu rõ) ……………………………………………………………………….. 4.Bạn dành bao nhiêu thời gian để học Tiếng Anh ngoài giờ học? ………..……………………………………………………………… 5.Bạn có gặp khó khăn gì khi học môn học khác bằng Tiếng Anh hay không? c.Có d.Không 6.Bạn thường xuyên gặp khó khăn trong lĩnh vực nào của Tiếng Anh (Bạn có thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời nếu phù hợp) a.Đọc b.Từ vựng c.Nghe d.Ngữ pháp e.Nói f. Ngữ âm g.Viết
  • 55. 7.Trong ngành học của bạn, bạn thường gặp những khó khăn gì? (Bạn có thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời nếu phù hợp) a.Tôi không hiểu yêu cầu của chương trình học b.Kỹ năng ngôn ngữ của tôi kém c.Tôi không có động lực để học Tiếng Anh d.Mất quá nhiều thời gian để chuẩn bị cho bài học e.Tôi không hiểu bài học khi nó được dạy bằng Tiếng Anh 8.Bạn có phương pháp/ chiến lược gì để giúp việc học Tiếng Anh của bạn với môn học chuyên ngành được hiệu quả hơn (Bạn có thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời nếu phù hợp) a.Tôi dành thời gian học ngoài giờ học b.Tôi hỏi giáo viên khi tôi cần sự giúp đỡ c.Thực hành với bạn theo cặp hoặc theo nhóm d.Nội dung khác (Xin nêu rõ) ………………………………………………………………………… 9.Gợi ý bạn có thể đưa ra cho giáo viên của bạn là gì? (Bạn có thể chọn nhiều câu trả lời nếu phù hợp) a.Tăng sự tương tác giữa giáo viên và học sinh trong lớp học b.Giáo viên nên sử dụng nhiều trò chơi hơn trong giờ học c.Tổ chức nhiều hoạt động và các câu lạc bộ cho học sinh để thực hành Tiếng Anh cả trong và ngoài giờ học d.Nội dung khác (Xin nêu rõ) ………………………………………………………………………… 10. Nếu bạn đồng ý tham gia vào phần phỏng vấn về những thách thức của sinh viên khi học các môn học khác bằng Tiếng Anh, xin hãy cung cấp thông tin liên hệ: Số điện thoại: ……………………………………………. Địa chỉ email: ……………………………………………. C m ơn sự giúp đỡ của các b n!
  • 56. APPENDIX III: INTERVIEW The investigator explains that she is doing a research about the EMI program. The researcher would record the interview if the interviewees agree. She states that “All of your information and the data obtained will be confidential”. Interview questions: - Please briefly introduce yourself - Tell me about your experience in your classroom 1. Did you have any problems when you studied English before entering the university? 2. What were the main challenges for you? 3. Do you have any other challenges in the content class now? 4. What did you do to improve the situation? (What are your coping strategies?) 5. Did you join in any activities outside classroom to improve your English? 6. What activities do you suggest to help students in EMI program learn English better?
  • 57. APPENDIX IV: BẢN PHỎNG VẤN Người phỏng vấn giải thích rằng cô ấy đang làm một nghiên cứu về chương trình dạy các môn học khác bằng tiếng Anh. Người nghiên cứu sẽ ghi âm cuộc phỏng vấn nếu người được phỏng vấn đồng ý. Cô ấy nói rằng “Tất cả các thông tin và dữ liệu liên quan đến bạn đều được bảo mật”. Câu hỏi phỏng vấn - Hãy giới thiệu ngắn gọn về bản thân - Kể cho tôi về những trải nghiệm của bạn trong lớp học, cụ thể là: 1. Trước khi vào đại học, bạn có gặp bất kỳ vấn đề nào khi học tiếng Anh không? 2. Khó khăn chính của bạn là gì? 3. Hiện tại, bạn có gặp bất kỳ khó khăn nào trong lớp học chuyên ngành không? 4. Bạn đã làm gì để cải thiện tình hình đó? 5. Bạn có tham gia các hoạt động ngoài giờ học để nâng cao trình độ tiếng Anh của mình không? 6. Để giúp học tốt các môn học khác bằng tiếng Anh, bạn đưa ra gợi ý gì?
  • 58. APPENDIX V. SAMPLED STUDENT INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS Date of interview: 29/09/2016 Interview length: 4 minutes Interviewer: Thu Interviewee: Physics Students (SS1) Interview language: Vietnamese Thu: Hello, let‟s me introduce myself. My name is Thu. I am in my second year of my M.A study. Today, I have some questions for you related to EMI program that you are taking (ISP or Advanced Program). The interview will last for a few minutes. Can we start right now? SS1: Yes. Thu: Ok. Did you have any problems when you studied English before entering the university? SS1: Before entering the university? Yes, I did. Thu: What were the main challenges for you? SS1: Actually, I did not remember. I just found difficult to learn listening and speaking skills. Thu: Do you have any other challenges in the content class now? SS1: There are a lot of new terms. They are difficult to remember if I do not understand its nature. It is very easy to misunderstand the lectures because I just understood some words among words I can hear. Thu: What did you do to improve the situation? SS1: I often listen to the radio or try to understand some information broadcasting such as BBC every morning and sometimes I read journals or newspapers and as a student I try to read books about my subjects or courses I study here at the university. I think group-work is also good at doing exercises or but sometimes I
  • 59. think it is boring. Thu: Did you join in any activities outside classroom to improve your English? SS1: Of course, yes, I used to take part in the language programs organized by my friends‟ school. They often provided knowledge about some language issues as well as give chances for students to play games. Besides, I worked as a waiter in a restaurant where I used English to communicate with foreigners but not much. Thu: What do you suggest to help students in EMI program learn English better? SS1: I want to learn course books in English rather than in Vietnamese. Thu: Did you study course books in Vietnamese? SS1: Yes, some books are Vietnamese. I find it easy to understand the books written in English rather than in Vietnamese. Some Vietnamese course books are difficult. Thu: Ok. Did you want to share any else? SS1: No. Thu: Ok, thank you very much.