Speaker
Description
In Vietnamese lower secondary classrooms, student learning is shaped not only by instructional strategies but also by the quality of teacher-student psychological interaction. Classroom practices such as public correction and unsupportive emotional responses to student difficulties may influence students' confidence, motivation, and willingness to participate in lessons. Yet interpersonal competencies of this kind are rarely addressed explicitly in formal EFL teacher training in Vietnam, leaving many teachers to develop them informally.
This workshop addresses that gap by treating psychological interaction as a trainable teaching competency rather than an innate disposition. Drawing on Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis and Deci and Ryan's Self-Determination Theory, the session focuses on three concrete dimensions: private dialogue, emotional validation, and goal-oriented encouragement that teachers can practise and refine.
Using a scenario-based training model, participants will analyse common classroom moments, identify where psychologically supportive responses could replace unsupportive ones, and rehearse reformulated responses through guided practice. The session closes with a discussion of what sustained uptake requires beyond a single workshop: peer coaching, school leadership support, and integration into existing professional development structures, so that interpersonal competencies are built into institutional capacity rather than left to individual initiative.
By modelling both the competency itself and a replicable training approach, this workshop offers a practical, context-specific model for developing psychologically supportive teaching capacity in Vietnamese EFL schools.
