Speakers
Description
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teachers in Vietnamese higher education face a profound professional paradox: despite demonstrating strong intrinsic motivation to collaborate, they remain systematically prevented from engaging in meaningful Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). This mixed-methods study, conducted at a leading economics university in Hanoi, collected survey data from 58 ESP lecturers and in-depth interview data from 10 purposively selected participants to examine the extent to which PLC components are realized in practice and to identify the structural and cultural barriers constraining their implementation. Findings reveal a striking motivational gap: while teachers strongly endorse collaborative professional development, critical structural enablers are virtually absent, with time availability for PLC participation scoring alarmingly low and workload pressure scoring near the ceiling. Qualitative themes illuminate a fierce collision between teachers' aspirations for pedagogical growth and an institutional culture governed by individualistic performance metrics, "publish-or-perish" mandates, and the invisibility of collaborative teaching work within reward systems. Grounded in organizational learning theory and PLC scholarship, the study argues that current PLCs remain superficial, stalling at surface-level information exchange rather than progressing to the data-driven joint inquiry that generates genuine improvements in student learning. To transform PLCs from an unpaid administrative burden into a sustainable professional ecosystem, the paper proposes a three-tier institutional reform agenda encompassing workload restructuring, KPI redesign, and a flexible multi-tiered PLC model tailored to the diverse needs of ESP faculty.
Biography
Author 1
Le Thi Huyen is Head of the Foundation English Division, Faculty of English for Specific Purposes, Foreign Trade University (FTU), Hanoi, Vietnam. She holds a Master of TESOL from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a Master of Finance from the University of Rennes 1, France. With 27 years of professional experience in English language education, she specializes in teaching Business English to undergraduate students in economics, business administration, and finance, delivering courses such as Business Studies, Business Communication, and Business for Finance. Her research and professional interests span teacher professional development, AI integration in language teaching and learning, curriculum design and development, language assessment, and the evaluation of AI competency among English language instructors. She is an active contributor to faculty development initiatives at FTU.
Author 2
Hoang Thi Hoa is Dean of the Faculty of English for Specific Purposes, Foreign Trade University (FTU), Hanoi, Vietnam. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics and brings over 20 years of academic and administrative experience to her role. In addition to overseeing faculty governance and curriculum management, she teaches postgraduate courses including Advanced Business English, Research Methodology, and Academic Learning Skills. Her scholarly interests encompass curriculum design, evaluation, and accreditation; the application of digital transformation in higher education; and cognitive linguistics. A committed advocate for quality assurance in ESP education, she has led multiple institutional curriculum review and reform projects and serves as a mentor for early-career researchers and educators within the faculty.
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