VietTESOL International Convention 2026

This study examines how dialogic mentoring conversations support novice teachers’ reflective practice and emerging teacher agency in a Vietnamese TESOL professional development context. Using a qualitative mentoring case study design, the study followed three novice EFL teachers through a baseline interview, three dialogic mentoring sessions, and post-session reflection logs. The analysis focused on the micro-processes through which mentoring talk shaped teachers’ interpretation of classroom challenges, instructional decision-making, and professional self-positioning. Drawing on narrative-informed thematic analysis, the study identified three interrelated findings. First, the mentor’s discourse was organized around six recurrent dialogic moves, with probing questions, reframing, and prioritization thinking forming the core interactional repertoire. Second, participants’ reflection gradually shifted from descriptive and problem-focused accounts toward more interpretive, structured, and forward-directing forms of professional reasoning. Third, teacher agency developed from reactive responses to classroom problems toward more principled, value-anchored decision ownership. The study argues that dialogic mentoring functions as a mediational space in which reflective practice and agency are not simply individual capacities but are interactionally constructed through sustained professional dialogue. These findings contribute to TESOL professional development by showing how mentoring conversations can support novice teachers’ reflective growth and strengthen their agentive participation in pedagogical decision-making.