VietTESOL International Convention 2026

As English is repositioned as a broader educational, academic, and communicative resource in Vietnam, English teachers face substantial changes in how their professional roles are defined and enacted. This shift, conceptualized as an EFL-to-ESL-oriented educational transition rather than a completed sociolinguistic movement, not only alters curriculum goals and classroom practices but also reshapes how teachers understand and negotiate their professional identities. While previous studies in Vietnam have largely examined curriculum reform, teaching methods, language proficiency, and learner autonomy, limited attention has been given to how teachers perceive assigned professional roles and desired future roles in this changing context. Addressing this gap, the present qualitative study explores the assigned and desired professional roles identified by 15 Vietnamese English teachers at upper-secondary, college, and university levels in Ho Chi Minh City. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically. Informed by teacher professional identity as dynamic, context-sensitive, and negotiated, and by Positioning Theory (Kayi-Aydar, 2019), the study examines how teachers are positioned by institutional expectations and reposition themselves through professional aspirations. Findings reveal assigned roles as implementers of educational reform, creators of English-use environments, professionally accountable practitioners, supporters of learners’ holistic development, and balancers of innovation and contextual constraints. Desired roles included facilitators of meaningful English use, adaptive professionals, learner companions, members of professional communities, and sustainable professional selves. The study suggests that the space between assigned and desired roles is a key site of identity negotiation in policy- and pedagogy-driven language transition. It offers implications for teacher development in Vietnam.