VIETTESOL INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION 2025

The research aims to examine how International medical students develop Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) within an English-Medium Instruction (EMI) medical program in Vietnam. Utilizing narrative interviews with twenty participants, this study adopts Byram’s five-component model of Intercultural Communicative Competence—which includes attitudes, knowledge, skills of interpreting and relating, skills of discovery and interaction, and critical cultural awareness—as the guiding analytical framework. The results indicate that students’ intercultural development is a dynamic, and context-dependent process influenced by influenced by their daily interactions within classroom settings, clinical environments, and social contexts. Participants initially encountered cultural dissonance, particularly around communication styles, hierarchical norms, and classroom interaction patterns. Over time, however, many developed greater openness, adaptability, and reflexivity, using strategies such as language learning, observation, and peer mediation to navigate cross-cultural encounters. Students reported enhanced awareness of Vietnamese cultural norms in clinical care, and many acted as cultural bridges between their Indian peers and Vietnamese faculty. Rather than viewing ICC as a fixed skillset acquired through formal instruction, this study highlights its gradual and embedded emergence through contextual experience. The findings underscore the importance of culturally responsive support structures in EMI programs to foster students’ intercultural development in meaningful and sustainable ways.