The making of an effective English teacher
Vietnamese English teachers (VETs), especially those working in high schools, are under public pressure because of their poor performances in national English proficiency assessments (Dudzik & Nguyen, 2013). As Le (2007) suggests, this is widely seen as the main reason why Vietnamese English learners have poor learning outcomes. Research shows, however, that it is the effectiveness of instruction that plays a crucial role in determining the success of language students (Richards, 1987; Richards & Nunan 1990; Burns, 1992). Given this dilemma between proficiency and instructional ability, it is necessary to investigate how VETs perceive their own situations and what they think can help improve their teaching. Little is known about this in the Vietnamese context (Trao & Ngoc, 2015).
This thesis follows a qualitative approach within an interpretive paradigm to investigate perspectives of a range of experienced high school VETs on issues related to the making of an effective English teacher (EET). Data were collected through six main research instruments (i.e., questionnaires, individual interviews, group interviews, focus-group interviews, classroom observations, and reflective tasks) and were analysed thematically. Several frameworks and theories (i.e., Korthagen’s (2004) ‘Onion Model’; Borg’s (2006) teacher cognition; Farrell’s (2015) reflective practice) were employed either inductively or deductively to help interpret the data.
The study’s findings shift our understanding of what makes an EET from simply referring to a checklist of explicit competencies (e.g., Mullock, 2003; Tsui, 2003; Park & Lee, 2006) to considering the combination of both explicit competencies as observable features and others aspects such as teachers’ beliefs and cognition as unobservable features. Drawing from the findings, three innovative EET models (i.e., EET model; EET support model; and EET strategies model) were developed to facilitate and better inform teacher educators, teachers, and other stakeholders in their roles preparing successful, effective VETs.
