“I Actually Speak More in English than in Vietnamese”: Investment, Emotion, and Positioning Among Vietnamese Students in a Transnational EMI Program
Keywords:
transnational EMI; Vietnam; Investment; Emotion; PositioningAbstract
This study examines how Vietnamese students in a transnational English-medium instruction (EMI) program make sense of their investment in English and negotiate their identities in classroom and institutional contexts. Adopting a qualitative interpretive approach, the study draws on three semi-structured interviews with each of five participants representing different stages of the transnational journey. Data were collected in Vietnamese, translated into English, and analyzed thematically through the lenses of Investment Theory and Positioning Theory. The findings show that English was understood not only as a medium of instruction but also as a form of linguistic capital linked to academic legitimacy, mobility, and future opportunity. At the same time, students’ investment in English was shaped by emotional pressure, especially in relation to institutional expectations and the gatekeeping role of IELTS. The study also found that students actively negotiated their identities across languages, contexts, and program stages. This study contributes to EMI research by offering insights from a Vietnamese transnational context and by showing how aspiration, emotion, and discursive positioning intersect in students’ lived experiences.
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.25.6.19
References
Ball, S. J. (2012). Global Education Inc.: New policy networks and the neoliberal imaginary. Routledge.
Benesch, S. (2017). Emotions and English language teaching: Exploring teachers’ emotion labor. Routledge.
Cena, E., Burns, S., & Wilson, P. (2021). Sense of belonging, intercultural and academic experiences among international students at a university in Northern Ireland. Journal of International Students, 11(4). 812–831. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v11i4.2541
Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2017). Thematic analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(3), 297–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1262613
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2016). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Sage Publications.
Dam, H. T. (2024). "My heart is for Vietnamese, but I think and write in English": Identity (re)construction of third culture kids - The interplay between language, culture, and identity (Publication No. 27676947) [Doctoral thesis, RMIT University]. RMIT Research Repository. https://doi.org/10.25439/rmt.27676947
Dang, T. K. A., Bohlinger, S., & Ngo, C. L. (2024). Teachers’ transformative agency in English-medium instruction in higher education in Vietnam: A cultural-historical theory perspective. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2024.2349803
Darvin, R., & Norton, B. (2015). Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 36–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190514000191
Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20(1), 43–63. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.1990.tb00174.x
Fang, F., & Hu, G. (2022). English medium instruction, identity construction and negotiation of Teochew-speaking learners of English. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 46(10), 3258–3273. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2051711
Galván Malagón, M. C., & Morera-Bañas, M. I. (2025). University students' emotions about learning subjects through English as a medium of instruction. Frontiers in Education, 10, 1536456. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2025.1536456
García, O., & Wei, L. (2015). Translanguaging, bilingualism, and bilingual education. In W. E. Wright, S. Boun, & O. García (Eds.), The handbook of bilingual and multilingual education (pp. 223–240). Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118533406.ch13
Hillman, S., Li, W., Green-Eneix, C., & De Costa, P. I. (2023). The emotional landscape of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education. Linguistics and Education, 76, 101178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2023.101178
Hoang, H. T. (2023). English-medium instruction practices in Vietnamese higher education: A positioning theory perspective [Doctoral thesis, University of Technology Sydney]. OPUS at UTS. http://hdl.handle.net/10453/177807
Huang, W.-C. (2025). Transforming self-identity in EMI: The interplay of behavioral engagement, motivational intensity, and self-efficacy. Education Sciences, 15(4), 429. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15040429
Lee, Y.-J., Davis, R. O., & Li, Y. (2021). International graduate students’ experiences of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) courses in a Korean university. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 20(9), 38–51. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.9.3
Nelson, J. (2017). Using conceptual depth criteria: Addressing the challenge of reaching saturation in qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 17(5), 554–570. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794116679873
Nguyen, T. H., & Nguyen, H. L. Q. (2025). Transnational affinity and the decision to study abroad of Vietnamese students: A narrative inquiry. VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 41(1), 38–50. https://doi.org/10.63023/2525-2445/jfs.ulis.5355
Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation (2nd ed.). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783090563
Özdil, B. M., & Kunt, N. (2025). Emotions, identity, and investment in EMI: Multilingual learners' experiences at a Turkish university. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2025.2533505
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 8(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839950080103
Pramerta, I. G. P. A., Ratminingsih, N. M., Putra, I. N. A. J., Santosa, M. H., Artini, L. P., & Adnyani, N. L. P. S. (2023). Voices of non-English students and teachers in English as a medium of instruction. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 22(3), 491–509. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.22.3.29
?ahan, Ö., & Sahan, K. (2023). A narrative inquiry into the emotional effects of English medium instruction, language learning, and career opportunities. Linguistics and Education, 75, 101149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2023.101149
Trang, N. H. (2025). Validation of a Vietnamese questionnaire on English learning investment among university students. Educational Process: International Journal, 14(1), e2025581. https://doi.org/10.22521/edupij.2025.19.581
Vu, N. T., & Dinh, H. (2024). “It is tough to come back. Who am I now as a language teacher?”: The re-positioning of three Vietnamese teachers of English language returning from overseas programs. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 11(1), 13–38. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1637
Yao, C. W., Collins, C., Bush, T., Briscoe, K. L., & Dang, N. L. T. (2021). English as a ‘double barrier’: English medium instruction and student learning at Vietnamese transnational universities. Higher Education Research & Development, 41(5), 1730–1744. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2021.1896485
Yu, Q. (2026). ‘Small stories’, big meanings: Discursive and emotional constructions of intercultural life among Chinese students in the UK. Language and Intercultural Communication, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2025.2612162
Zhou, S., & Thomas, N. (2023). To survive or to thrive? Synthesizing the narrative trajectories of students’ self-regulated listening practice in an EMI transnational higher education context. Language and Education, 39(1), 270–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2023.2260358
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Le Truong An, Adcharawan Buripakdi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All articles published by IJLTER are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivatives 4.0 International License (CCBY-NC-ND4.0).
