Policy–capacity mismatch in English language policy implementation

This research investigates the enactment of Vietnam's Decision 2,371 concerning ESL instruction within mountainous regions, shifting the focus from merely describing obstacles to an analysis of how national policy objectives are reshaped within multilingual, resource-constrained environments. Employing a mixed-methods approach that incorporated surveys ( N = 145 teachers, 310 students) and semi-structured interviews conducted across eight schools in three mountainous provinces, the study reveals a consistent disparity between policy aspirations and the practical capacity for implementation. For most students residing outside of prominent tourist destinations, exposure to English remains informal and restricted. The findings indicate that, notwithstanding the predominantly favorable perspectives of educators and learners regarding ES, considerable constraints persist across three interrelated domains: pedagogical competence (e.g., a lack of adequate training in communicative language teaching approaches), infrastructural deficiencies (e.g., restricted access to digital tools), and linguistic context (e.g., limited exposure to Vietnamese and English beyond the confines of the classroom). It builds on the idea of policy–capacity mismatch to explain why language reforms, even with good intentions, might not work as planned in multilingual settings with limited resources. It also argues that the language skills of minority groups, often seen as obstacles, can be helpful in teaching, if they are used with the right teacher training and assessment changes. This study adds to the existing discussions about language policy, multilingual education, and fairness in education by showing that the success of second-language policies depends on how they are designed, the ability of local educational systems to put them into practice

English language · Foreign language · Language policy · Linguistic competence · Multilingual Education · Vietnamese · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Second Language Learning and Teaching

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