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Teaching practicum is very essential in the process of learning how to teach, so it should be paid great attention by not only teacher education program designers but also implementators. The paper reports a study on the efficiency of teaching practicum which has been conducted at Public University (pseudonym) in Vietnam. The research employed qualitative approach, and semi-structured interviews were used as the instrument for the data collection. Findings reveal that the implementation of the teaching practicum did not provide student teachers with sufficient chances to develop their teaching skill efficiently. Inappropriate method of implementing the teaching practicum, loose cooperation between the university and high schools, and insufficient support are major issues that caused the teaching practicum to be ineffective. Peer mentoring and a more suitable method of implementing the internship are recommended solutions to improve the effectiveness of the teaching practicum in the English Teacher Education Program at Public University in particular and other English teacher education programs in Vietnam in general.Keywords: Educational program, peer mentoring, teacher education, teaching practicum, teaching skills, VietnamCite as: Vo, T.K.A., Pang, V., & Kean Wah, L. (2018). Teaching practicum of an English teacher education program in Vietnam: From expectations to reality. Journal of NusantaraStudies, 3(2), 32-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol3iss2pp32-40

Flipped classroom is gaining more and more popularity among educators and researchers all over the world; however, its implementation in Viet Nam is still in infancy. This small-scale research project attempts to investigate students’ perceived challenges when attending a flipped English grammar class. Qualitative research design was adopted to address the research question. The participants include 34 second-year students majoring in the English language at a state university in Viet Nam. The instruments consist of an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was employed to address the qualitative data. The findings highlight that Vietnamese students encounter several challenges when attending the flipped classroom including difficulty in self-regulated learning, heavy learning workload, lack of immediate support and lack of ICT resources. Accordingly, the present research has some pedagogical implications to help address those obstacles for successful implementation of this innovative teaching mode in the Vietnamese EFL context.

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The overall vision for 21st century learning has incorporated digitalisation as a key focus in teaching and learning practices. In Sri Lanka, however, despite major initiatives taken to improve digital competency of teachers, only minor improvement was noted. Using the DigCompEdu assessment tool, this study investigates to what extent Sri Lankan English language teachers are digitally competent. The results aim to inform national initiatives to facilitate the shift towards a bottom-up process, informed by actual realities based on skills and competences. The DigCompEdu 22-item quantitative survey was used to sample 40 English language teachers working within the public education system. Overall, the study finds that not even 50% of the sample is at one competency band. It is recommended that for substantial changes to occur, a more varied and individualised teacher-training is recommended, using the DigCompEdu as a diagnostic guide.