Learner autonomy has been widely researched and discussed in education generally and language education particularly. In Vietnam, this concept has long been discussed in the area of educational studies and general pedagogy. However, while little is known about learner autonomy in the area of language learning and models through which language learners can become autonomous, less is known about how pre-service language teachers go through the process of becoming autonomous in language teacher education. This is important since teachers’ thinking about learner autonomy is likely to shape how they will train language learners to become autonomous once they become language teachers at schools nationwide.

Our study goes one step further regarding teacher trainees’ autonomy by investigating teacher educators’ beliefs about learner autonomy. Our rationale is that language teacher educators’ views about learner autonomy can provide us with how they carry out learner autonomy strategies in their teaching, which ultimately shapes their trainees’ thinking about what they, as teachers, think, believe, and do regarding promoting learner autonomy in the future. This presentation will, therefore, present data from a group of 84 university lecturers working as language teacher educators in six public universities through questionnaires and narrative frames. Among the most significant findings is the conclusion that although these educators generally desired to let their trainees take charge of many aspects of learning, they were unsure about the feasibility of doing so in Vietnamese university classrooms. Drawing on the findings, we will highlight the models of learner autonomy from the beliefs of these teacher educators, and draw implications for the promotion of learner autonomy in language teacher training institutions in Vietnam.