VietTESOL International Convention 2026

As Viet Nam, repositions English from EFL to ESL, the significance of teachers and their professional development has come into sharp focus. Since 2022, British Council in Viet Nam has collaborated with UK and Vietnamese ELT institutions and teachers to pilot an innovative form of Communities of Practice, Teacher Activity Groups (TAGs). Based on previous research (Borg, Lightfoot, Gholkar 2020) into the impact of TAGs around the globe as an effective model, it aligns with the National Foreign Language Project’s (NFLP) goal of supporting foreign language teacher practice and innovation, with teachers encouraged to connect, particularly through professional Communities of Practice. In this symposium, we will showcase the research, practice and impact of this initiative through the practical results of three UK/VN partnerships. The first presentation [ID#2559] highlights the role of TAGs in building teacher facilitator identity, outlining how such a focus can support teachers in their development journey to become TAG leaders. The second presentation [ID#2585] demonstrates how local culture can become a productive resource for teacher development and language learning. The final presentation [ID#2534] highlights the findings of a project which demonstrated how TAGs could be used to create opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, leading to shifts in teacher perspectives and practices. Through presentations and discussion among the three project research teams, we shall explore both the timely impact of TAGs and how they could be scaled up through sustainable collaboration between key ELT stakeholders to support teacher professional development in Viet Nam’s emerging ESL era.

#2559 Taking a Leap of Confidence and Competence: The Role of Teacher Activity Groups in Building Teacher Facilitator Identity
Authors: Mai Nguyen, Anthony Picot, Caroline Collier, Marijana Macis, Carmen Herrero, Thi Thanh Huyen Phan, QuynhNhu Phan, Thi Bao Ngoc Phan

What does it take for a classroom teacher to move beyond supporting learners’ English development and become a facilitator of colleagues’ professional learning? What supports teachers in taking this leap of confidence and competence? In many contexts, teacher professional development continues to be led by external experts, often disconnected from classroom realities, focused primarily on pedagogy rather than the teacher as a whole person (including their professional identity), and limited in sustained impact. This paper presents an identity-oriented teacher professional development initiative conducted through Teacher Activity Groups (TAGs), designed to support English language teachers in building confidence, competence, and developing identities as facilitators of teacher learning. Funded by the British Council through the UK-Vietnam Partnership for Teacher Activity Groups initiative, the project involved English language teachers across primary, lower-secondary, and upper-secondary levels in Hue and Ben Tre (now part of Vinh Long), Vietnam. We first introduce an identity-oriented TAG model underpinned by three core principles: reflection, collaboration, and identity enhancement. We then present the TAG facilitator competency framework, which outlines key attributes and competencies associated with effective teacher facilitation. Next, we describe the TAG learning cycle through which teachers collaboratively developed facilitation competencies: Self (reflecting on personal and professional beliefs), Experience (drawing on classroom practice), Reflection (analysing experiences), Dialogue (engaging in collaborative discussion), Reframing (reconsidering beliefs and practices), and Action (applying new insights to teaching and professional learning). Finally, we report findings on teachers’ identity development as teacher facilitators across three dimensions: facilitation competence (knowledge, skills, confidence, and strategies for leading TAG sessions), identity internalisation (seeing oneself not only as a classroom practitioner but also as a facilitator of professional learning), and identity enactment (applying facilitation skills through organising meetings, guiding discussion, and fostering collaborative learning). Drawing on survey data from 57 teachers, in-depth semi-structured interviews with 10 participants, and teachers’ written reports post-meetings, findings indicate that TAG participation supported teachers’ development across these areas. All teachers reported growth in their ability to design and facilitate professional learning meetings, with over half reporting substantial development. Around three-quarters described positive emotions, including pride and excitement, associated with their emerging facilitator role. Teachers also reported a shift in orientation from “presenting and sharing knowledge” to “facilitating participation and collaboration” in professional learning spaces. The findings suggest that identity-oriented professional development can support teachers in developing the confidence and capacities needed to lead and sustain professional learning within their own communities of practice.

#2585 Culture as a Pedagogical Bridge in Multilingual English Classrooms
Author: Ngoc Anh Nguyen
Co-author: Hồng Minh Nguyễn Thị

As Vietnam repositions English from EFL to ESL, language classrooms need locally grounded ways of expanding English use beyond textbook knowledge and isolated skill practice. This presentation draws on the design and implementation of Teaching English Multilingually through Art (TEMA), a British Council-supported project in Vietnam, to show how local culture can become a productive resource for multilingual and multimodal English learning. The presentation introduces a practical culture-to-classroom logic developed through teacher development workshops: noticing cultural details, making meaning through multiple modes, and transforming cultural insights into adaptable pedagogical practices. Examples include activities inspired by museum and community resources, such as observational prompts, folk games, food heritage, and sound-based creativity. Moving away from rigid lesson plans, we illustrate how teachers dynamically adapted these resources to foster vocabulary development, language sequencing, speaking interaction, learner reflection, and multimodal outputs across diverse school contexts.
Furthermore, we connect this approach with wider professional learning principles: teachers are not only users of materials but co-designers who interpret local knowledge, learner repertoires, and classroom constraints. In this way, culture becomes a pedagogical bridge between local experience and broader communicative participation. The presentation contributes to the symposium by showing one feasible pathway for supporting Vietnam’s EFL-to-ESL transition through multilingual pedagogy, teacher agency, and context-responsive resource design.

#2534 Teacher Activity Groups for Professional Development in Multilingual Classrooms
Author: Dung Cao

This presentation reports findings from a British Council-funded research project that explored teachers’ perspectives on the effectiveness of Teacher Activity Groups (TAGs) as a professional development model in multilingual classrooms. A total of 45 teachers participated in the project and were organized into 15 TAGs, each consisting of one English language teacher (ELT) and two subject teachers. The project positioned ELTs as key agents in reducing language barriers and supporting multilingualism in schools. Participating ELTs received training on multilingualism, the role of language in education, and TAG facilitation to prepare for the role. Data were collected through interviews, observations of TAG meetings, and reflective journals. The findings indicate that TAGs fostered shifts in teachers’ perceptions and understandings of multilingualism, with some teachers adopting translanguaging and other inclusive pedagogical strategies. TAGs also created opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration, enabling teachers to exchange and adapt approaches to linguistic inclusion across subjects. However, the effectiveness of TAGs varied among groups, depending on teacher preparation and the quality of TAG facilitation.