Building on both Western and Asian theoretical resources, the book examines how EIL teachers see themselves as professional and individual in relation to their work practices. It reveals the tensions, compromises, negotiations and resistance in their enactment of different roles and selves, especially when they are exposed to values often associated with the English-speaking West. The ways they perceive their identity formation problematise and challenge the seemingly dominant views of identity as always changing, hybrid and fragmented. Their experiences highlight the importance of the sense of belonging and being, connectedness, continuity and a coherent growth in identity formation. Their attachment to a particular locality and their commitment to perform the moral guide role as EIL teachers serve as the most powerful platform for all their other identities to be constructed, negotiated and reconstituted.

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This is an interesting and insightful book that uses both Western and Vietnamese theoretical resources to underscore the importance of understanding the shifting professional identities of a group of Vietnamese ESL teachers, as they struggle to come to terms with competing pressures, both national and transnational. It shows that these teachers stand at the vanguard of a new era in which English represents the possibilities of greater intercultural understanding but also a hegemonic globalism that poses the risks of marginalizing other languages and cultural traditions.

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Phan Le Ha has fulfilled such a daunting task, especially in terms of epistemology. Her critical discussion of and engagement with both Western and non-Western philosophies and knowledge is one of the most powerful elements of the book that offers meaningful space to any of us, teachers of the English language, to relate, reflect and grow.