Private Language Education in Vietnam

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Download the application package here.

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Project Description

Private language education in Vietnam has been a burgeoning market for the last decade. Beginning when Vietnam opened its doors to the Western world after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, private language education, particularly in English, has grown dramatically and, to a certain extent, uncontrollably. According to Quang Tuệ et al. (2025), there were 2,380 and 955 licensed language centres in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi respectively as of 2025. Le (2019) believes that the low teaching quality in public schools has given rise to private language education, while I have argued that this development has been supported not only by underlying historical-cultural values and economic ideologies but also by recent language policies (Tran-Thanh, 2025).

Such development, not only in size but also in quality, enhanced by the emergence of a cohort of second-career language teachers, has tremendously transformed the language education landscape in Vietnam (Tran-Thanh, 2025). Independent teachers, both first- and second-career, have occupied a large market share, educating numerous students (Tram et al., in press). High IELTS achievers, mostly trained in the private sector, are featured in official media outlets, while obtaining an IELTS score has become a norm among young people (Tran-Thanh, 2025).

Despite such significance, scholarship on private language education in Vietnam is extremely scarce. The growing body of literature on language education in Vietnam virtually centres on mainstream official language education. In cases where a private language centre is mentioned, it is for sampling convenience rather than serving as a central tenet of exploration. Critical knowledge regarding curriculum, pedagogies, innovations, teachers, students, and management, among other areas, is therefore limited and unsystematic.

To address this scarcity and establish a scholarly foundation for the landscape, this project seeks to explore a wide spectrum of topics related to private language education in Vietnam.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Historical development
• Current state
• Pedagogical specificities
• Business–education value negotiation
• Teacher recruitment and professional development
• Learners and language learning
• Structural specificities
• Neoliberal practices
• Language centres vs independent teacher-operation

Interested applicants can see more details regarding the timeline and organisational structure of the project below.

Submission

Please submit your application via this form.

• Please note that this project will take place in person in Ho Chi Minh City. Hybrid attendance is strictly subject to case-by-case approval.
• Weekly meetings are scheduled for either Friday mornings or evenings. Selected applicants should make appropriate arrangements to ensure full participation.