1. The emergent and added importance of English in post-DoiMoi (The revolution) in Vietnam -> sudden surge in demands -> a shortage of human resources.

2. Neoliberalism and the commodification of English instruction (world -> Vietnam) 

Private English institutions/ shadow education/ private sector in Vietnam (market, demands, prevelance and the controversies)have proliferated. 

3. Hiring practices in this sector – the general Vietnamese administration and working style/ convention (lax, lenient, unsystematic, corrupted) as no official legislation for the qualifications of teachers working in private sectors -> This research project will shed critical light onto the “civil war” between the professionally-trained and untrained Vietnamese teachers (not on the native and nonnative English-speaking teachers as sand has shifted in how key stakeholders in Vietnam perceived this notorious dichotomy).

1. The hiring practices in private English institutions are abitrary/ shady, may sustain some certain bias against candidates; sometimes degrees do not make a differences between candidates (degree, academic background, etc.); may engender some beliefs about the roles/ qualifications of an English teachers (still have a job without proper training). 

2. As a professional English teacher with formal education and extensive training -> a central and haunting question: Is this fair? Is it worth it to do a master’s abroad when degrees are not going to offer a distinct advantage in job prospects? 

3. Teaching jobs in general are considered as a noble job and associated with career satisfaction being drawn from teachers’ intrinsic drives -> This is the case in Vietnam too, BUT university entrance scores for teacher training in Vietnam (except for teaching English) are consistently reported to be one of the lowest -> This may influence how the public view the skills and knowledge of a trained teacher -> ironically, some who hopped jobs from other disciplines to teaching English may at first look down on this profession, but now due to the increasing materialistic values brought about by the commodification of English instruction, the notion of being a “teacher” has become lucrative again.

1. What are the most frequently stated requirements for an English teaching job for Vietnamese candidates in Vietnam? 

2. What messages do these job requirements convey about the image of an English teacher in Vietnam? 

3. How does formal teacher training make a difference in English teaching job prospects? 

- First gap: Research using CDA to analyse job advertisement is spare, mostly in Singapore (Huei Ming, 2019; Ng & Teo, 2015): the ads are multimodal (videos + written text) and government-produced. The researcher compared the changing requirements for an English teachers in relation to the development of Singaporean educational sytem. Semi-structured interviews are also conducted to bring forth teachers’ insights about their work conditions and comments on such ads 

- Second gap: the previous studies set the context in the public sectors (advertisement from the Ministry of Education) but my study focuses on the private sector (in Vietnam, the market for private english instruction is expanding exponentially + stat. 

3. Teacher identities Gee (2001): 4 types (nature, instution, discourse and affinity), among which the instution and discourse identity shape how teachers and teaching are presented in job advertisements => public discourse can influence how the PUBLIC view teachers and teaching (Huei Ming, 2019).

I. Research design 

The study is conducted following the qualitative research design. Qualitative data are from job advertisements and semi-structured interviews with the participants.  

II. Sample 

1. A collection of about 30 English teaching job advertisements will be drawn from vietnamworks.com (the most popular job ad web + has rigorous requirements for job posts) and about 10-20 off-market job advertisements from Facebook (the researcher has the access thanks to her engagements in the field and networks with local English schools). Job advertisements will be collected on the basis ofkey word search (sorted by relevance and the date posted, new posts are preferred). Requirements for job ad are: (1) from employers that are still operating, (2) having a clear job requirement and (3) job descriptions.  

2. If possible and feasible: 10 purposefully chosen interviewees (8 teachers both trained and untrained + 2 employers) for semi-structured interviews. 

III. Data analysis 

1. Descriptive analysis (frequency counting) will be conducted to establish an overall picture of what is mostly and less required for an English teaching job -> answer RQ1 + 3 

2. Semi-structured interviews will (probably) be conducted to comment on such statistics and express their views towards to job markets and hiring pratices of recruiters.  -> answer RQ3  

3. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) will be used to further analyse the job ads (the study deals with underlying ideologies sustained and conveyed via advertising discourse so CDA is appropriate as the approach is ideal for surfacing the vested interests and ideologies. The research will analyse the job advertisements following the 3-dimentional framework developed by Fairclough (1996). The intepretations and analysis of the second and third (discourse as discursive practice and as societal practice) dimensions will be drawn from the researcher’s lived experience as an insider and from the opinions/ ideas/ comments of the interviewees -> answer RQ2+3