Translanguaging Practices in EMI Settings from the Perspective of Student Agency: An Example from Vietnamese Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter aims to explore translanguaging practices in an EMI programme at a Vietnamese university. More specifically, the chapter focuses on how students enact their agency in using their linguistic repertoires during assessed oral presentations to make meaning and construct content knowledge with their lecturers and classmates, who all are Vietnamese. Data were collected within a semester from an ethnographically informed approach, with classroom observations, interviews, focus groups, and other supplemented sources of data. The findings highlight the fact that students’ dynamic use of languages contributes to generating bottom-up policy at classroom level, which may or may not adhere to the top-down policy. Based on the findings and discussion, recommendations regarding EMI implementations and EMI pedagogical practices for lecturers are proposed.