Engagement in and beyond academic communities in a foreign country: A case study of Vietnamese TESOL doctoral students in Thailand

In the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Anglophone (or English-dominant) countries are considered ideal destinations for international students from Asian countries as they offer various engagement opportunities for academic and intercultural communication development. Accordingly, existing research on TESOL student mobility largely focuses on Asian-Western binaries as the attributes of the challenges in their engagement
(Kettle, 2021). However, in recent times, TESOL degrees have also been increasingly offered in other non-Anglophone contexts such as Taiwan, Thailand, and China, attracting an increasing number of Asian students. The question, therefore, is how TESOL students experience engagement in scholarly and academic activities in these new settings. Against this backdrop, in this study we take a distinctive approach by looking at Vietnamese students undertaking TESOL doctoral programs in Thailand—an expanding circle country and an underresearched context of engagement. In so doing, we aim to contribute to the existing literature in the field and provide implications for TESOL training institutions, lecturers, and students.