In the discussion of non-native English-speaking teachers (NNETs) versus native English-speaking teachers (NETs) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context, strengths of NNETs in several aspects of English language teaching (ELT) have been acknowledged, thus contributing to their repositioning in the ELT profession; the same, however, cannot be said about NNETs' status in the field of English pronunciation teaching. This paper reports on an investigation into Vietnamese EFL teachers' and learners' perspectives of who should teach English pronunciation. Data was collected from students via surveys and focus-groups, and from 10 Vietnam teachers of English via interviews and classroom observation. The data was coded and analysed thematically. The study found that while most Vietnamese teachers were ambivalent about their competence as teachers of English pronunciation, learners were able to articulate their views about who and what helped them to improve this aspect of their English. The findings also indicate that learners' level of English proficiency had a significant influence on their views of whether a NET or a NNET was more beneficial for their learning.

Given the strong empirical evidence in the field of education that confirms the relationship between the application of game elements and increased learning motivation, gamification has recently become a concept that starts drawing attention in the field of English language teaching (ELT). However, the topic of gamification is still under-presented in ELT research, especially in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts. The current research ex-plores the extent to which Vietnamese EFL learners are familiar to online gamification tools and their attitudes toward online-based gamified learn-ing. The study draws on data collected from survey questionnaires and fo-cus group interviews. Participants involved 147 students who participated in the survey; 12 volunteers among the surveyed students joined focus group interviews. The findings indicate that gamification has started taking a certain role in English learning both within and beyond classrooms. Also, students’ attitudes towards gamified learning are positive. Pedagogical im-plications regarding the application of gamified learning in improving the efficacy of English education in Vietnam and similar EFL contexts are also discussed.

A widely reported constraint is the neglect of pronunciation teaching methods in TESOL programs, even in ESL contexts such as the U.S. (Murphy, 2014), Canada (Foote et al., 2011, the UK (Burgess & Spencer, 2000) and Australia (MacDonald, 2002). The poor training has consequently caused teachers throughout the world to feel a lack of confidence to teach pronunciation (see, for example, Al-ghazo, 2013;Baker, 2014;Foote et al., 2011;Murphy, 2014). Recently, with the increasing awareness of the importance of pronunciation teaching, pronunciation programs have been included in pre-service teachertraining courses in more contexts, for example China and Korea (Robertson, 2003). However, it is

In EFL classrooms today, teachers are facing the challenge of helping their students improve their intelligibility in international communication in English. Feedback is one of the main ways through which teachers are performing the task. However, feedback on students’ English pronunciation has not received commensurate attention in EFL contexts. Aiming to shed some light on this essential but neglected aspect of English language teaching (ETL), this study examines the beliefs and practices of ten experienced teachers of English at a non-English-major university in Vietnam. Findings derived from semi-structured interviews and classroom observations show that teachers largely shared a strong belief in the importance of feedback in learners’ pronunciation development. Teachers were found to mainly focus on instant feedback rather than delayed feedback, and on individual errors rather than collective ones. Findings also indicated that teachers’ approaches to feedback provision diverged greatly, which were confined by their varying expectations in pronunciation pedagogy, different knowledge, and beliefs regarding how to correct, what to correct, and who would benefit from error correction. On the basis of the findings, implications for classroom practices and teacher training were discussed.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, English programs were switched to online regardless of learners’ wishes in several regions. In such a challenging circumstance, learners’ needs should be specially attended to. Situated within the framework of Self-Determination Theory, the current study explores the fundamental needs of relatedness, competence, and autonomy of EFL (English as a foreign language) learners and the satisfaction of those needs in fully online learning. The study draws upon qualitative data collected from focus groups (seven students), and quantitative data collected from a survey (183 students). Findings indicate strong teacher support in fields other than autonomy and relatedness. Also, students were highly satisfied with both their technological and academic competence but were neither happy with the in-classroom communication nor provided space for autonomy. Based on the findings, implications to enhance learners’ need satisfaction in prolonged post-pandemic online learning are discussed.