Receptive English proficiency across programs in engineering education

Abstract

English proficiency is increasingly recognized as a prerequisite for disciplinary participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) higher education, yet large scale evidence on institutional variation among non-English-major engineering students remains limited in Vietnam. This study examined receptive English proficiency across three program types, mass, advanced, and international, using population-level placement data from 17,561 first-year engineering students over three consecutive cohorts (2022-2024). Listening and reading performance (10-990 total) was analyzed through a two-way general linear model (GLM) to assess main and interaction effects of program structure and academic year. Results indicated a consistent proficiency hierarchy (advanced>international>mass), with program type explaining the largest proportion of variance (partial η²=0.21). Academic year demonstrated a medium effect (partial η²=0.09), reflecting a progressive decline in cohort readiness, while the interaction effect (partial η²=0.03) showed more pronounced decreases in the mass program. These findings suggest that English-medium environments partially buffer national level declines but cannot fully offset systemic weaknesses in receptive preparedness. Implications include differentiated instructional pathways, placement informed curriculum design, and targeted academic English support in Vietnamese-medium engineering programs. The study provides empirical evidence for equity-oriented English medium instruction (EMI) development and contributes data driven insights for policy and curriculum in STEM higher education.