There has been a widespread shift to the teaching of English in many Southeast Asian nations in preference to other former colonial and politically dominant foreign languages. In Vietnam, this has involved switching from French, Chinese and Russian. In response to the emerging role of English as the dominant and most preferred foreign language in Vietnam, large numbers of former teachers of French, Chinese and Russian were required to shift to teaching English and were put through a process of retraining, known as‘transitioning’. There has been little research on how these teachers have experienced and adapted to this transition. In this presentation, I will report on part of my doctoral study which employed a case study approach to explore how a group of transitioned teachers, at one of the ten leading Vietnamese universities, have experienced the policy change in general and in particular,the transition. The concept of figured worlds (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner and Cain, 2003) has provided a productive conceptual framework for this study. The findings so far have revealed significant insights into the teachers’ experiences through the process of educational changes, which discloses important aspects in language education in Vietnam, and contributes to understand other language teaching contexts undergoing similar changes.
Citation:
Holland, D., Lachicotte, W., Skinner, D., & Cain, C. (2003). Identity and agency in cultural worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
