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The study examines how such reality shock shapes and transforms early career ESOL teachers’ teaching methodologies through an interpretative case study, identifying both external and internal contributing factors. Findings highlight policy, student cooperativeness, professional support, and teachers’ own competence, beliefs, and attitudes, with recommendations for assessment and development.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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Don’t Teach as I was Trained”: Vietnamese Early Career ESOL Teachers’Experience of Reality Shock\u003Cbr>Vu Tran-Thanh\u003Cbr>Phu Hoa High School\u003Cbr>Follow this and additional works at: [https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte](https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte)\u003Cbr> Part of the Adult and Continuing Education and Teaching Commons, and the Other Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons |  |\n\nRecommended Citation  \nTran-Thanh, V. (2021) .“Why I Don’t Teach as I was Trained”: Vietnamese Early Career ESOL Teachers’Experience of Reality Shock. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 46(12) .  \n[http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2021v46n12.3](http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2021v46n12.3)  \nThis Journal Article is posted at Research Online.  \n[https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol46/iss12/3](https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol46/iss12/3)  \n“Why I Don’t Teach As I was Trained”: Vietnamese Early Career ESOL Teachers’ Experience of Reality Shock  \nVu Tran-Thanh  \nPhu Hoa High School, Vietnam  \nAbstract: Trained intensively in teaching English for communication,  \nbeginning Vietnamese ESOL teachers still follow the traditional  \napproach in their classroom, i.e., teaching for grammar-and  \nvocabulary exams. This contrast in pedagogical practices is caused  \nby “reality shock”, which happens for most teachers during the first few years into teaching. The current study aims to explore how reality  \nshock influences and transforms early career ESOL teachers’  \nteaching methodologies. It employs an interpretative case study  \nresearch design to outline both external and internal factors that  \ncharacterize reality shock. The results show that besides English  \neducation policy, students’ cooperativeness and professional support,  \nthe participants were also affected by their own pedagogical  \ncompetence, beliefs, and attitudes. Recommendations for assessment  \npolicies, professional development and further research have also  \nbeen put forward.  \nIntroduction  \nThe English language has recently been viewed as a predictor of future success and a gateway to global participation in Vietnam. The teaching of English to speakers of otherlanguages (ESOL) has, therefore, received special attention and enormous investment from both the public and Government (Le, 2019a; Ngoc, 2018) . An ESOL education reform, commonly known as the National Foreign Languages 2020 Project (referred to as Project 2020 hereafter), was established with the goal that by 2020 all school-leavers and university graduates would be able to communicate effectively in English (Ministry of Education and Training, 2008) .  \nRegarding teachers as the key to success, the Government approved an allocation of 80% of the total budget of US$446.43 million for teacher professional development (Le, 2019a) . The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has, accordingly, launched different training schemes, created a set of standards in teachers’ language proficiency and pedagogical competence, established an association for English language teaching and research (VietTESOL), developed a national standardized test and organized numerous conferences, workshops and webinars (Le et al., 2017; Le, 2019a; Le & Barnard, 2019; Ngoc, 2018; Nguyen & Ngoc, 2018) .  \nResearch, however, has shown that ESOL teachers’ teaching methodology remains unchanged as from the pre-Project 2020 period, i.e. primarily preparing students for the grammar-and-vocabulary examination (Nguyen, 2016), and neglecting the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) . Also, approximately 50% nationwide teachers have not reached the required standard of English proficiency (Le et al., 2017) . This issue of professionalism has triggered extensive research to explore the reality and provide professional support. While the contrast of ESOL teachers’ training content and classroom  \npractices paradoxically exist side by side, how a","cbCaifdDafSANsQ8","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifdDafSANsQ8","pdf",384229,18,"English","# Introduction\n## National Foreign Languages 2020 Project and teacher training\n## Persistent exam-focused methodology and professionalism issues\n## Teacher theory-reality shocks and professional growth focus\n## Vietnamese context: limited induction and support","[{\"question\":\"What teaching approach do Vietnamese early career ESOL teachers tend to follow despite initial training?\",\"answer\":\"They often follow a traditional exam-focused approach, teaching for grammar-and-vocabulary tests rather than for communicative purposes.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the study describe as the main driver of this mismatch?\",\"answer\":\"The study attributes the contrast in practices to “reality shock” experienced by many teachers during the first few years of teaching.\"},{\"question\":\"Which factors does the research find influence early career ESOL teachers during reality shock?\",\"answer\":\"It highlights external factors such as English education policy, student cooperativeness, and professional support, as well as internal factors including teachers’ pedagogical competence, beliefs, and attitudes.\"}]","Australian Journal of Teacher Education - Article 3 - “Why I Don’t Teach as I was Trained”: Vietnamese Early Career ESOL Teachers’Experience of Reality Shock | PDF",1792078407,45]