Echoes in Translation
This article explores the potential of poetic inquiry to re-read Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ reflective writing as affective, ethical, and aesthetic texts. Drawing from two datasets, including private reflections collected during professional development and public-facing teaching innovation entries, the study rearranges teacher-authored lines into found poems, organized into five thematic cycles: (1) becoming, (2) constraints and care, (3) voice and silence, (4) recognition and innovation, and (5) teaching across languages. Rather than thematically coding or categorizing the data, this inquiry foregrounds rhythm, pause, metaphor, and relational weight. It treats reflective writing not only as a source of pedagogical insight but as a genre of professional authorship. The article includes a dialogic commentary and comparative discussion that situate this poetic mode within broader traditions of narrative inquiry, teacher identity research, and arts-based methods. In doing so, we argue for listening differently to what teachers say, and to how their words live beyond the analytic frame.