Reflective teaching: Voices from Vietnamese pre-service EFL teachers

Quynh-Nhu Phan and Quoc-Thach Nguyen
Hue University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam

Reflective teaching (RT) is widely encouraged for pre-service teachers (PSTs) as a facilitating tool in learning to teach. Despite a large body of literature on RT, little empirical evidence sheds light on PSTs' perceptions of RT in the English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher education context in Vietnam. This study, thus, aims to examine Vietnamese EFL PSTs' insights into RT and their perceptions of RT's benefits and challenges. A mixed-method approach was adopted to collect data from thirty-two PSTs through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that most of the teacher participants were aware of RT's aims, activities, and form of practice; however, most of them were not able to identify the process and tools for performing RT. In addition, most of the PSTs perceived that RT brought them numerous benefits in enhancing their teaching competence and personal development; meanwhile, a few challenges in RT were also reported related to their inadequate knowledge of RT and language teaching, and insufficient skills in critically evaluating their teaching and self-studying. Accordingly, several pedagogical implications are proposed to enhance PSTs' knowledge and skills of RT and to optimise the effectiveness of training and self-training English language teachers through RT.
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Authors: Quynh-Nhu Phan PhD is a senior lecturer at Hue University of Foreign Languages and International Studies. She obtained her MA in Applied Linguistics at the University of Queensland, Australia and her PhD in Education at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Her research interests include TESOL and teacher education and development. She has extensive experience in teaching EFL, training teachers, and developing teacher training materials. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6168-8388 Email: pquynhnhu@hueuni.edu.vn Quoc-Thach Nguyen BA is currently pursuing an MA in TESOL at Hue University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, where he previously gained his BA degree in the same field. His research interests are teacher professional learning and TESOL. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0388-0237 Email: qthachmti@gmail.com Please cite as: Phan, Q. N. & Nguyen, Q. T. (2024). Reflective teaching: Voices from Vietnamese pre-service EFL teachers. Issues in Educational Research, 34(2), 666-681. http://www.iier.org.au/iier34/phan.pdf