Connections between learning and teaching: EFL teachers’ reflective practice

ABSTRACT

This study explores six Vietnamese, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ reflections on their experiences of English language learning during the early 1980s to the late 1990s. Data collected in narrative interviews with the participating teachers revealed a wide range of issues that arose during their EFL learning, central to which was the prevalence of grammar-focused practices in all EFL classes. From their perspectives as EFL teachers today, the participants see their learning experience as a way of learning to teach. In particular, they pinpoint the negative aspects of language teaching at that time in the hope that their teaching practice today will not repeat the same mistakes. However, they also reflect on positive aspects, especially their influential teachers, to inform their teaching. Based on the findings, the study suggests that language teachers’ experience of language learning should be considered part of reflective teaching as well as of teachers’ trajectories of learning to teach.

KEYWORDS:

• EFL teachers
• language-learning experiences
• language teaching in Vietnam
• learning to teach
• reflective practice

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Jill Brown for her excellent comments. I would also like to extend my thanks to two anonymous reviewers and the editorial board for their critical reviews that greatly improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chinh Duc Nguyen

Chinh Duc Nguyen is a lecturer of language education in the College of Foreign Language Studies at the University of Danang, Vietnam, earning his MA in TESOL from the University of Queensland and his PhD in education from Monash University, Australia. In the academic year 2017–2018, he is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. His scholarly interests include second language teacher education, identity in language teaching, sociocultural issues in language education and social justice in education.