‘This is something beyond their capacity’: Teacher educators’ cognition of L2 pragmatics and challenges of its integration into EFL teacher education: An exploratory study in Vietnam

Language teacher cognition concerning second language (L2) pragmatics is an under-researched sub-field in language teacher cognition research. L2 pragmatics is also overlooked in many L2 teacher education programs. To address these gaps, this study adopted a within-site case study design to investigate the knowledge, beliefs and teaching practices of 14 Vietnamese teacher educators of English about how to teach L2 pragmatics and their actual teacher education practices. Data was collected through a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that the teacher educators fell into two broad and equally sized groups differentiated by the extent to which they were able to articulate what L2 pragmatics is, why it is of value, and how they addressed it in their teacher education. The findings offer insight into how to improve the quality of English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher education in Vietnam and similar contexts regarding L2 pragmatics and teacher training.