Problematizing the Culture of Learning English in Vietnam: Revisiting Teacher Identity

Le, T; Phan, Le Ha

doi:10.1057/9781137296344_13

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Within the Vietnamese EFL context, learners mainly focus on accuracy in writing but less on self-efficacy, communication skills, and critical thinking skills. Additionally, Vietnamese EFL teachers consider English as an international language and so classroom tasks are heavy per se (Le & Phan, 2013). This follows that teachers are less likely to be able to foster learners' communication ability.…”

Section: Introduction the Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

A Cross-Linguistic Approach to Analysing Cohesive Devices in Expository Writing by Asian EFL Teachers

Hung

Nguyen

et al. 2021

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Recent research has shown that cohesive devices contribute substantially to writing quality and reveal L2 writers' information, such as first or native language. This quantitative study adopted a cross-linguistic approach to investigating the use of cohesive devices in expository writing by Asian EFL teachers compared to native English teachers. The study involved 80 participants from three different L1 backgrounds, including 28 Vietnamese, 26 Filipino, and 26 native English teachers. The Vietnamese and Filipino teachers were at a comparable level of English proficiency. Around 800 words were randomly selected from each participant's reports for analysis. Results from One-Way ANOVA showed that the Vietnamese and Filipino teachers used a similar pattern of cohesion with lexical cohesion being used most frequently, followed by reference and conjunction. In contrast, the cohesive devices used by the native English teachers dispersed more widely across five main categories. The results further showed that the native English teachers used more cohesive devices in writing than the Vietnamese and Filipino teachers separately. Results from the Independent-Samples T-test showed omission and redundancy to be the two most common error types by both the Vietnamese and Filipino teachers. The study has implications for L2 writing and pedagogy.

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Section: Introduction the Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

A Cross-Linguistic Approach to Analysing Cohesive Devices in Expository Writing by Asian EFL Teachers

Hung

Nguyen

et al. 2021

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“…In terms of EFL teachers' professional identity, most of the empirical studies fit a similar trend to the world; that is, investigating non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) from EFL backgrounds who have constructed and negotiated their multiple identities (national, cultural, and professional) during their postgraduate studies or residency in English-speaking countries (T. T. H. Le, 2012; T. T. H. Le & Phan, 2013; T. T. H. ; X. N. C. M. Nguyen & Dao, 2019;L. H. Phan, 2007).…”

Section: Community Of Practice and Efl Teachers' Professional Identit...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…D. Nguyen, 2017b). Research in this area has focused mainly on non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs) who are from EFL backgrounds and have constructed and negotiated their multiple identities (national, cultural, and professional) during their postgraduate studies or residency in Anglophone countries (T. T. H. Le, 2012; T. T. H. Le & Phan, 2013; T. T. H. L. H. Phan, 2007L.…”

Section: Empirical Studies On Efl Teachers' Professional Identity In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Almost all the studies about teacher professional identity in Vietnam have been conducted with EFL teachers who were trained in an English-speaking country and returned to Vietnam to teach English, or with those who have experienced both cultures in Vietnam and in other English-speaking countries. Specifically, Le and Phan (2013) while problematising the stereotyped culture of learning English in Vietnam in which learners are said to lack confidence, to be dependent upon memorisation and prone to errors, to lack communicative skills and critical thinking, pointed out that the teachers who have been exposed to English as an international language in Australia-based TESOL programmes offered space for alternative frameworks within which learners and teachers could view each other differently. Phan (2007) explored identity formation of Australian-trained Vietnamese teachers of English by looking at their experiences as TESOL students in Australia and as teachers of English in Vietnam.…”

Section: Empirical Studies On Efl Teachers' Professional Identity In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some scholars (e.g., Deni & Malakolunthu, 2013;Green et al, 2013) assert that participating in collaborative PD interventions affects not only teachers' teaching practice but also their view about themselves as teachers (or teacher professional identity). There is a predominant model when it comes to researching EFL teachers' professional identity: it focuses on non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) from EFL backgrounds constructing and negotiating their multiple identities (national, cultural, and professional) during their postgraduate studies or residency in Anglophone countries (Barkhuizen, 2016;Fan & de Jong, 2019; T. T. H. Le, 2012; T. T. H. Le & Phan, 2013; T. T. H. L. H. Phan, 2007L.…”

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A Community Of Practice And Its Influence On Vietnamese Efl Teachers' Professional Identities

Tran¹

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This thesis investigates the community of practice (CoP) as a model for professional development for EFL teachers in Vietnam as well as its influences on their professional identities and practices. In the context of Vietnam, although EFL teachers, English language teaching, and professional development (PD) for EFL teachers have been the focus of the national education reforms, and funds and effort are put into PD activities aiming at improving EFL teachers’ language proficiency and updating their teaching methodologies, there has been little evidence of positive changes in teachers' teaching practices and students' learning outcomes. Several collaborative models for teacher professional development which have recently been introduced, despite being helpful, still raise some issues regarding voluntary participation, distributed leadership, trust and collegiality, and the balance between top-down (PD provided and required by an institution or regulatory body) and bottom-up (PD directed and determined by individual and groups of teachers) approaches. The international literature also reveals that effective collaborative communities for teachers are rare and while collaborative models are common in primary and secondary schools, they are limited in higher education. In this thesis, a community of practice (CoP), defined as a group of people “who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger et al., 2002, p. 4), was introduced as a form of professional development in the context of university EFL teaching in Vietnam. This thesis draws on social constructionism and social constructivism as theoretical frameworks for understanding teacher professional identity and the professional learning process within the CoP. A qualitative case study as the research method and action research as the research process were adopted to investigate the complex situations and meanings of the CoP process and teacher professional identity. Eight EFL teachers (including me as the participant) were recruited to participate in the CoP over six months. Multiple instruments including pre-interviews, post- interviews, CoP recordings, reflective writing journals, and artefacts were used to collect data, and discourse analysis was adopted to analyse and interpret the data. Evidence from the data highlights that multiple discourses relating to teaching experience, English language proficiency, Confucian and constructivist teaching approaches, and institutional factors influenced Vietnamese EFL teachers’ professional identities and practices. Conflicting discourses led to tensions in the teachers’ professional identities and negatively influenced their teaching practices. The structure of the CoP, which was characterised by being voluntary, having clear ground rules, a shared repertoire, and no leaders’ involvement offered a safe place for the teachers to collaborate and mutually engage with each other through a variety of activities. The thesis demonstrates that when teachers feel safe, experience agency as well as distributed power in their own professional development, they are able to share their teaching problems honestly. With appropriate scaffolding from More Knowledgeable Others (MKOs), they are able to challenge taken-for-granted knowledge and reconcile conflicts in discourses, thereby transforming their professional identities and practices in a positive way. The CoP elements of mutual engagement, shared repertoire, and joint enterprise were evident in this research, embedded within three key features - Connection, Collaboration, and Reflection. These features made the CoP model used here different from other collaborative models in Vietnam and eliminated some issues of such models, such as a lack of trust, a lack of voluntary participation, and the balance between top-down and bottom-up approaches. The thesis makes significant contributions to knowledge about collaborative PD models for EFL teachers and teacher professional identities in Vietnam. Recommendations are made, which aim to strengthen the basis for collaborative PD amongst Vietnamese teachers and suggest a CoP model appropriate to the Vietnamese context and other similar contexts.

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The Role of English Language Learning Experiences in the Development of TESOL Preservice Teachers’ Identity Capital

Nguyen,

Ngo

2023

Global Vietnam: Across Time, Space and Community

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Problematizing the Culture of Learning English in Vietnam: Revisiting Teacher Identity

Cited by 6 publications

References 22 publications

A Cross-Linguistic Approach to Analysing Cohesive Devices in Expository Writing by Asian EFL Teachers

A Cross-Linguistic Approach to Analysing Cohesive Devices in Expository Writing by Asian EFL Teachers

A Community Of Practice And Its Influence On Vietnamese Efl Teachers' Professional Identities

The Role of English Language Learning Experiences in the Development of TESOL Preservice Teachers’ Identity Capital

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