Intersecting culture and language learning: power-distance and participation in Vietnamese EFL classrooms

This qualitative study examines how Vietnamese university learners experience teacher-learner power-distance in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms and how hierarchy shapes participation. Sixteen English-major undergraduates from two Mekong Delta institutions took part in semi-structured interviews in Vietnamese. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identified three connected clusters: (1) reverence and role expectations that naturalise teacher authority, (2) risk and reticence, where linguistic insecurity and sociopragmatic uncertainty (e.g. fear of sounding impolite) intensify anxiety and reduce willingness to communicate, and (3) relational openings, in which bounded warmth (greetings, humour, brief self-disclosure, or strategic Vietnamese use) softens the emotional climate without dismantling authority. These insights help explain why communicative reforms may stall when classroom talk feels morally and emotionally risky. The study situates power-distance within second language acquisition-relevant participation conditions and argues for culturally congruent recalibration rather than authority removal. Implications include low-exposure participation routines and pragmatic scaffolds that lower affective costs and expand interactional opportunities.