Rethinking (Non)Nativeness Among English-Speaking Teachers in Vietnam

Abstract

In Vietnam, foreign language teaching and learning have recently been a concern of not only educators and language learners but also parents and families who have school-aged children. When finding a suitable language course, language learners and their families tend to ask questions about the nativeness of the teachers and their language fluency. Foreign teachers’ actual proficiency and educational qualifications may come in second place. This situation may lead to poorly qualified language teaching courses and unequal treatment of qualified non-native language-speaking teachers. To confront this problem, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has tightened the job entrance requirements for foreign English-speaking teachers, especially those who apply for work as English lecturers at university. Foreign teachers’ identities and qualifications matter to learners’ choices of whom they want to study with. This literature review reflects on MOET’s ambivalent approach to recruiting qualified human capacity building for the national English development project and developing and retaining English-speaking Vietnamese lecturers. This paper argues that the influence of monolingual ideologies in language teaching and learning in Vietnam that was encountered at schools and universities some years ago has now shifted to a more open but competitive ambiance for national integration into the global market. In this sense, teaching English is not an apolitical activity. It is a politically designated career in this socialist market-oriented economy.