“I Didn’t Have to Go Abroad to Be Global”: Narrating Investment and Global Identity Formation in Vietnamese EMI
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Abstract
This study explores the nonlinear journey of a Vietnamese student across different English-Medium Instruction (EMI) contexts. Drawing on Investment Theory, Poststructuralist Identity Theory, and Bourdieu’s concept of capital, the study uses narrative inquiry to examine identity construction through a critical case of educational withdrawal and reentry. The findings show that the participant initially invested in English as a pathway to opportunity, status, and global belonging. However, this investment weakened when institutional hierarchies, unequal language expectations, and English-only practices in a transnational joint program undermined her sense of belonging. During a liminal “silent year,” she rethought her goals, her relationship with English, and her understanding of what it means to be global. Her journey challenges linear views of EMI success by showing that becoming “global” is a negotiated process shaped by reflection, resistance, and change. Rather than treating withdrawal as a failure, the study conceptualizes reinvestment as a distinct phase of identity reconstruction. The findings offer a counter-story to the English-only fallacy and call for EMI pedagogies that better support students’ emotional and ideological struggles in Global South contexts.
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