Impact of Globalization on ELT Pre-Service Teacher Education in a Vietnamese Context: A Sociocultural Perspective

Research on the impact of globalization on English language learning and teaching has increasingly been documented, but the issue of the effects of globalization on English language teaching (ELT) teacher education has been under-explored. This chapter reports the findings of a case-study on globalization effects on the learning-to-teach practices of a cohort of 20 ELT pre-service teachers in Vietnam during a 15-week practicum. To explore the issues, the study combined Vygo\sky s sociocultural theoretical perspective (Vygotsky, 1978, 1981a, 1981b) with globalization theory, particularly, Marginson and Rhoades s (2002) glonacal agency heuristic. While the sociocultural theory sheds light on and frames the research, the globalization theory provides an analytical tool to identify elements of globalization in the data. Data were collected in the form of individual interviews with the pre-service teachers, observations of their lessons, and other relevant artefacts such as their instructional materials. Results showed that the learning practices of these teachers were strongly influenced, both directly and indirectly, by multiple aspects of globalization. These include the internet, internet applications and shared online resources, the influence of a worldwide shared culture and the border-crossing of international organizations and people, to name a few. Traces of global influence on the teachers views of language teaching and learning were also revealed. The paper concludes that it is essential for teacher educators and TE policy makers to be cognizant of these nontraditional factors shaping modern ELT teacher learning.