This study aims to investigate Vietnamese teachers’ digital competence, specifically their ability and readiness to integrate educational technology into language teaching. Utilizing a qualitative lens, it seeks to uncover teachers’ lived experiences, highlighting both opportunities and challenges associated with technology integration in their pedagogical practices. By examining contextual factors such as professional development, infrastructure and institutional support, the study intends to generate empirical insights that address existing research gaps related to the localized experiences of Vietnamese English teachers. Ultimately, it provides evidence-based recommendations to inform policies and practices, fostering effective and sustainable technology-enhanced language teaching in Vietnamese educational contexts.
This qualitative study employs an interpretative phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of Vietnamese language teachers regarding educational technology integration. Data collection involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews with language teachers selected through purposive sampling, ensuring participants possessed relevant teaching experience and varied technology proficiency levels. Thematic analysis was utilized for data interpretation, guided by established frameworks such as the technological pedagogical content knowledge model. To ensure rigor, strategies such as member checking, reflexivity and researcher triangulation were implemented. Ethical considerations, including informed consent and confidentiality, were strictly observed to uphold participants’ anonymity and maintain the credibility and trustworthiness of the findings.
Findings reveal that teachers possess basic technological competencies and familiarity with common digital tools, but demonstrate limited adoption of advanced educational technologies. Key barriers identified include persistent technical issues, insufficient professional development, infrastructural limitations and inadequate institutional support. Teachers reported frustration from recurrent technical disruptions and limited training opportunities tailored to their practical classroom needs. Additionally, an absence of systematic professional guidance hindered strategic integration of innovative technologies. These constraints underscore the urgent need for comprehensive, targeted professional development, improved technological infrastructure and sustained institutional backing to facilitate meaningful, innovative and effective integration of technology into teaching practices.
This study provides significant localized empirical insights into Vietnamese teachers’ experiences with educational technology integration – an under-researched area in current EdTech literature. It highlights the specific challenges faced by language educators in Vietnam, offering a critical perspective on the urgent need for systematic institutional support and targeted professional development programs tailored to local contexts. By addressing these research gaps and offering concrete, actionable recommendations for policymakers, educators and administrators, the research contributes meaningfully to both national policy discourse and international scholarship, supporting practical advancements in sustainable, context-sensitive integration of technology into language education practices.
