VietTESOL International Convention 2026

This proposed study investigates how Vietnamese doctoral candidates in English language teaching (ELT) construct ESL-oriented self-positioning as an adaptive practice within shifting professional contexts. While English in Vietnam has traditionally been framed as a foreign language, its expanding role in academic and professional domains increasingly calls for an ESL reconsideration. Drawing on Individual Adaptability (I-ADAPT) Theory (Ployhart & Bliese, 2006), the study conceptualizes both doctoral study and the evolving ESL orientation as dynamic contexts that introduce new demands and expectations. Within these contexts, self-positioning is approached as an adaptive process through which candidates rethink of their roles. Adopting a narrative inquiry design, the study focuses on three Vietnamese doctoral candidates who share the same doctoral program but represent diverse demographic and professional backgrounds. Data will be generated through in-depth semi-structured interviews and narrative frames. The analytical framework draws on selected dimensions of I-ADAPT (handling stress, solving problems creatively, dealing with uncertainty, learning new tasks/technologies/procedures, and interpersonal-cultural-physically oriented coping mechanisms), which function as sensitizing concepts to structure within-case narratives. Each case will be developed as a coherent developmental storyline, followed by a cross-case discussion on convergence and divergence in how participants adapt to context dynamism through self-positioning. The study is expected to contribute to understanding how doctoral study and the increasing prominence of ESL-oriented practices jointly shape teachers’ adaptive self-positioning, and how this process relates to ongoing conversations of professional identity within the Vietnamese ELT workforce.