Speaker
Description
Vietnam's 2025 National High School Graduation Exam (NHGE) shifted from decontextualised discrete-item and grammar- and vocabulary-focused testing to discourse-embedded reading comprehension and cohesion tasks. This reform of the high-stakes exam aims to increase alignment with the 2018 General Education Curriculum and the Vietnamese Government’s 2025-2035 plan to reposition English as a Second Language (ESL) in educational institutions. The new format was announced just eight months before the official June 2025 exam, creating immediate pedagogical turbulence. This qualitative study investigated how seven EFL teachers from large urban and rural (provincial) settings perceived and responded to the reform. Data were collected through two group interviews and two individual follow-up interviews, then analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2021). Three themes emerged, with urban-rural context serving as a key analytical axis. Urban teachers, supported by students’ greater familiarity with international standardized tests and stronger institutional networks, adapted through dual-track instruction and genre-appropriate supplementation. Rural teachers, without comparable resources, retreated to grammar-translation methods and experienced professional identity disruption. Across both contexts, responses concentrated on test-item construction rather than the pedagogical theories underpinning the new exam format, leading to what we termed technical washback: a surface-level format compliance without sufficient theoretical and conceptual transformation of pedagogy. As perceived by teachers, the reform generated aspirational washback at the national level in the short term, with English remaining the most commonly chosen optional language; however, an increasing number of students, especially in rural areas, opted for other subjects instead. The findings suggest that the reform may have reinforced rather than reduced pre-existing structural inequalities, with direct implications for professional development design under Vietnam’s national teacher-retraining long-term commitments.
Keywords: technical washback; NHGE reform; discourse competence; teacher agency; educational equity; Vietnam
Biography
Nguyen Xuan Khanh is a lecturer at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Thanh Dong University, Vietnam. His research interests span applied linguistics, digital and AI literacy, and educational entrepreneurship. He is particularly interested in how generative AI tools can enhance qualitative research practices and transform language teaching environments. He is also interested in the role of employability skills in higher education, particularly how institutions can better equip academics and graduates for an increasingly digital and competitive landscape. Alongside his scholarly work, he explores how educators can adopt entrepreneurial mindsets to drive meaningful innovation in education.
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