THE PARTICIPATORY APPROACH TO ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER TRAINING IN VIETNAM

Abstract

In the past few years, English language teacher training in Vietnam has witnessed remarkable improvements, but more so in terms of quantity than in terms of quality. Adopting a case study research design, this article reports the feedback of 14 participants in a training workshop series using the participatory approach. The interview data suggests that the use of this approach brought about certain benefits in terms of practicality, application, interactions and learner autonomy, which conincide with major issues confronting English language teacher training in Vietnam. However, the participants also voiced certain concerns and suggested possible solutions, indicating that the use of the participatory approach should be combined with other teaching methods to maximize its effectiveness.