Becoming someone else in English through self-efficacy and identity positioning in Vietnamese EMI classrooms
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12928/eltej.v9i2.16498Keywords:
English-medium instruction, Vietnam, Self-efficacy, Learner identity, Identity positioningAbstract
English-medium instruction (EMI) requires learners to reconstitute academic selfhood through a language that is not their own, yet this process remains undertheorised. This study examined how self-efficacy beliefs are associated with identity positioning across four dimensions, disciplinary, academic, linguistic, and social, among Vietnamese EMI undergraduates. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design (N = 266 quantitative; n = 18 qualitative), the study integrated Bandura's (1997) self-efficacy theory, Norton's (2000) investment framework, and Dörnyei and Ushioda's (2021) L2 motivational self-system. Regression with all four self-efficacy dimensions entered simultaneously showed disciplinary identity most strongly associated (f² = .418), followed by academic (f² = .293), linguistic (f² = .209), and social identity (f² = .182), with academic self-efficacy the strongest predictor across all four. Thematic analysis identified three dimension-specific themes: an efficacy-attribution pattern for disciplinary and academic identity, a written-oral modality split for linguistic identity, and an emerging cultural-threshold proposition linking Confucian face-saving norms to social identity positioning. These findings suggest identity positioning in EMI is dimension-differential rather than unitary, and that self-efficacy is associated with identity through attribution-conditional rather than performance-contingent pathways.
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