A CRITICAL FRIEND GROUP FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: PERCEPTIONS OF EFL TEACHERS AT A UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1075.2025-0065

Tóm tắt

Engaging in ongoing professional development is needed for EFL teachers to ensure the sustainability and growth of their teaching profession and promote the quality of education. To develop teachers’ instructional competence and performance, they need to be involved in professional development activities, one of which is a Critical Friends Group (CFG). However, it remains unclear how effective this activity is for EFL teachers in Asian contexts such as Vietnam, where collaborative work is not a common practice. This paper, adopting a qualitative design, explores teachers’ perceptions of CFG for English language teachers’ professional development. The data was captured from five EFL teachers at a university in Vietnam via a narrative frame. The findings indicate that the teachers viewed CFG as a practical approach to their professional development, fostering their collaborative and critical learning through activities such as reading, observations, and discussions on various English language learning and teaching issues. Additionally, the teachers perceived CFG as an ideal platform for personal, social, and professional growth, enhancing their professionalism while building mutual trust and understanding among colleagues. The study also suggests implications for exploiting the CFG approach in teacher professional development.