"THE ROLE OF TEACHERS IN A TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING CLASSROOM: PERSPECTIVES OF VIETNAMESE EFL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS "

Abstract

"Task-based Language Teaching plays a central role in recent educational reforms in Vietnam, yet its success hinges on teacher readiness. This qualitative study examines the perspectives of pre-service teachers, an understudied group, to understand how they conceptualize their roles in TBLT and the challenges they expect to face. In-depth semi structured interviews with ten pre-service EFL teachers at a university in the Mekong Delta were employed and data were analyzed via thematic analysis. The findings show that participants held a well-developed theoretical understanding of TBLT. They viewed their roles as task designers, facilitators, language advisors, assessors, classroom managers, motivators and reflective practitioners. At the same time, they anticipated substantial challenges at three levels: practical limitations in classroom conditions, psychological constraints such as limited confidence, and systemic constraints driven by institutional and assessment pressures. The study concludes that their professional identity remains in a fragile transition, mediated by the conflict between university-taught theories and traditional classroom realities. These findings underscore the urgent need for adaptive TBLT in teacher education and systemic assessment reform to create an enabling environment for communicative innovation in Vietnam."