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NFL Project 2020 addressed Vietnam’s compelling need for improving communication in English that, as a consequence, has transformed the country as a destination for “self-initiated expatriate (SIE)” English teachers. They are the people who choose to set out to work in a foreign country without the assignment or the help of a home company. Analyzing the content of transcripts and field notes from six semi-structured individual interviews with six self-initiated expatriate teachers of English who have spent from about 9 months to 7 years in Hanoi about their process of adjusting to culture in the Vietnamese workplace, this study provides researchers, HRM practitioners, and policy makers an insight into the self-initiated expatriate work life in this South-East Asian country. Participants exhibited a passive approach to cultural adjustment, a lack of preparation, tendency to display ethnocentrism, and reported a critical need for better training, job descriptions and organizational support. The findings suggest that further research and certain HRM practices should be conducted to encourage integration between Vietnamese teachers and managers and this diverse group of foreign teachers, not only to foster a work environment that embraces support and diversity, but also to ensure the quality of the English training programs they are directly involved with as teachers. Key words: Self-initiated expatriate; expatriate adjustment; intercultural communication; Vietnam; NFL Project 2020; Human resource management.
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER ADJUSTMENT STRATEGIES IN WORKING ENVIRONMENT OF SELF-INITIATED EXPATRIATE TEACHERS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN HANOI: A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION Supervisor: Hoàng Thị Hạnh, PhD. Student: Nguyễn Xuân Hạnh Course: QH2010.F1.E2 HÀ NỘI - 2014 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP CHIẾN LƯỢC THÍCH NGHI VĂN HÓA TRONG MÔI TRƯỜNG LÀM VIỆC CỦA GIÁO VIÊN TIẾNG ANH NGOẠI QUỐC TẠI HÀ NỘI, VIỆT NAM: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỊNH TÍNH Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Hoàng Thị Hạnh, PhD. Sinh viên: Nguyễn Xuân Hạnh Khóa: QH2010.F1.E2 HÀ NỘI – 2014 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Xuân Hạnh, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library. In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper. Signature Date 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the contributions of many people. I would like to express my gratitude for: • My supervisor, Dr. Hoang Thi Hanh. I have been and will always be thankful for her unfailing support, professionally and personally. Dr. Hanh has been there constantly from the beginning to provide me with knowledge, advice, and comments with strict academic integrity and respect to my autonomy. She is the person I feel indebted to the most, for her loving, positive, and responsible outlook on life has been my constant inspiration to carry on with this thesis, even in the face of illness and desperation. But for her supervision, I would not have been able to successfully complete this study. I learned so much from her, and owed so much to her. • The expatriate teachers who have devoted their precious time to take part in this study. • The two anonymous expatriate teachers of English that inspired this study. • My lecturers at University of Languages and International Studies, who have taught and inspired me in the last four years. Especially, I would like to thank Ms. Dinh Hai Yen, my lecturer, for being the wonderful teacher who always showed great patience and perseverance that I strive to resemble. • My friends at class QH.2010.E2, my friend Nguyen Lan Phuong and Tran Ngoc Viet Hoai, for the emotional support and constructive comments. Phuong and Hoai inspired me the most with their care and encouragements. • Michael “Aki” Atkinson, whose independence and integrity has inspired me every step of the way. 4 • My family, including my Mother and Father, whose love I cannot even describe, who have always encouraged and inspired me to move forward and be the person I can be. ABSTRACT NFL Project 2020 addressed Vietnam’s compelling need for improving communication in English that, as a consequence, has transformed the country as a destination for “self-initiated expatriate (SIE)” English teachers. They are the people who choose to set out to work in a foreign country without the assignment or the help of a home company. Analyzing the content of transcripts and field notes from six semi-structured individual interviews with six self- initiated expatriate teachers of English who have spent from about 9 months to 7 years in Hanoi about their process of adjusting to culture in the Vietnamese workplace, this study provides researchers, HRM practitioners, and policy makers an insight into the self-initiated expatriate work life in this South-East Asian country. Participants exhibited a passive approach to cultural adjustment, a lack of preparation, tendency to display ethnocentrism, and reported a critical need for better training, job descriptions and organizational support. The findings suggest that further research and certain HRM practices should be conducted to encourage integration between Vietnamese teachers and managers and this diverse group of foreign teachers, not only to foster a work environment that embraces support and diversity, but also to ensure the quality of the English training programs they are directly involved with as teachers. Key words: Self-initiated expatriate; expatriate adjustment; intercultural communication; Vietnam; NFL Project 2020; Human resource management. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Berry (1997)’s model of acculturation strategies 8 7 LIST OF TABLES 8 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY Nowadays, the role of English in Vietnam is becoming more and more important. In order to integrate with a global market economy after Doi Moi economic reform in 1986, the Vietnamese government adopted the socialist-oriented market economy, which allows the establishment of private businesses and foreign investment, including foreign owned enterprises. Since then, fluency in English has intriguingly become a compulsory requirement in almost every job description. Along with the promotion of the free market economy came the development in tourism, leading to Vietnam’s transformation into an appealing tourist attraction. According to the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, in 2013, Ha Noi is on the eighth place of TripAdvisor’s list of the top travel destinations on the rise, after only two other Asian cities, Kathmandu (Nepal) and Sapporo (Japan). The need to communicate in English has become tremendous, resulting in the multitudinousness of English learners. Replacing Russian, English is now the main foreign language studied in Vietnamese schools and tertiary institutions. The need for native speakers of English who can teach the language, therefore, has become compelling. In January 2013, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) signed an agreement with Australia’s English Language Company (ELC), under which thousands of native English speakers will come to teach their language in Vietnam in the coming years. Those teachers, coming from the U.S., the U.K., Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa, will teach English in K-12 schools, junior colleges, and universities, as a part of Project 2020, a national English improvement project. Within this year, up to 350 teachers will be sent to Vietnam on this project. Predictably, these teachers will be coming to the big cities, especially Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. A study on their adjustment will be of value to the field of human resource management and intercultural studies, especially when so far, very little has been done in the field of expatriate management in Vietnam in general and on English language expatriate teachers in particular. However, unlike the Vietnamese teachers of English, who are accustomed to the culture of their own nation, the success of those expatriate teachers of English has been often not just dependent on their qualifications but also their expatriate adjustment. Failing to adjust to the Vietnamese way of working, interacting, and living can lead to underperformance and lots of obstacles in remaining devoted to the profession, and even abandoning it. As cited in by Johnston (1997), in his article “Do EFL teachers have careers?”, Maley (1992) described EFL/ESL teaching as permeable, meaning that it is “an easy occupation to enter and to leave” (Johnston, 1997, p. 686). In case of expatriate teachers, the pressure to cope with and accustom oneself to a foreign culture makes it even more challenging for this occupation to be followed. The demand for expatriate teachers to stay in Vietnam as long as possible, therefore, puts a big emphasis on assisting these teachers in the process of acculturation – “the process by which group members from one cultural background adapt to the culture of a different group (Rieger & Wong-Rieger, 1991, as cited in Poole, p. 176). 1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study focuses on an under-research group of expatriates, the self-initiated expatriates. To date, research on international management has provided a body of literature focused on the perception, selection, training, in both home and host countries, of international assignees, the people who are sent abroad on job assignment. However, there exists a group called self-initiated expatriates, for the simple reason that they choose to become expatriates in a foreign country on their own initiative. Self-initiated expatriation does not only happen in neighboring countries, but [...]... can help improve adjustment, and so can logistical support (such as housing, schools) provided for the expatriate Because most of it deals with non-work issues, logistical support is expected to have a stronger relationship with interaction, and especially general adjustment, rather than with work adjustment (Black et al 1991) Organizational socialization factors, according to Van Maanen and Schein (1979,... and I saw an English center and I applied And I was surprised that I got an interview and then I got equally surprised that I got accepted for the position (Tim) Andrew, who came to Vietnam with the strongest motivation, seeing the country as fitting to his personal plan and a good teaching opportunity, even stressed his interest in Vietnamese food and history There're three reasons I came to Vietnam