Whose needs are met? Navigating tensions in academic language support at a Vietnamese EMI university

In keeping with the marked expansion of English-medium instruction (EMI) in Asian contexts, this study offers detailed evaluation of academic language support for EMI courses in a Vietnamese university. It explores academic language needs and current provision of support and challenges through the perceptions of multiple stakeholder groups: students, language instructors and content lecturers. Data was obtained from 10 semi-structured interviews with teaching staff and a questionnaire involving 175 students. Survey data was processed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics while interview data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicated a general alignment between teachers’ and students’ views on students’ current abilities, but a divergence in their perceptions of target academic language needs. Moreover, language and content teachers were found to offer support mostly in areas of writing and reading, and their focus was on either teaching generic skills or assisting content comprehension, respectively, rather than catering to subject-specific language as desired by students. Key challenges to their support were identified, including students’ limited English proficiency and motivation, coordination issues and time constraints. Finally, practical implications regarding teachers’ pedagogical roles and professional development, as well as institutional guidance in the implementation of language support in EMI contexts, were discussed.