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

Abstract

English language learning in Vietnam has often been criticized for its ‘not yet satisfactory’ quality, which is ascribed to a range of ‘traditional’ factors, such as large class size and inefficient and inadequate teacher training. Especially, the ‘problematic’ learner tends to be the main target of blame: In the literature, prevailing epithets for learners are ‘passive’, ‘traditional’, ‘mechanical’, ‘reactive’, ‘dependent’, ‘reticent’, ‘reluctant’. These learners are said to lack confidence, to be dependent upon memorization and prone to errors, to lack communicative skills and critical thinking. This alleged ‘culture of learning’ is viewed as being ‘difficult to change’, as it has, supposedly, deep roots among Vietnamese learners and in the culture. This conceptualization seems problematic, not least because it seems to portray the learner as having a fixed unitary identity. This chapter takes this as an issue for investigation, and it draws on a qualitative case study with Australian-trained, ethnic Vietnamese teachers of English to ascertain whether and how the stereotyped culture of learning ascribed to Vietnamese learners persists for these teachers; the teachers have been exposed to English as an international language (EIL), which should offer space for alternative frameworks within which learners and teachers could view each other differently.