English Language Teaching (ELT) is a hotspot in contemporary global politics of education. Global English is endorsed worldwide but its character as ‘English’ and its teaching practices are tensioned between travelling ideas about what constitutes ‘good’ English and English language teaching and nationally-specific norms related to English and teacher professionalism at all levels. This paper uses the concept of teacher professional identity to understand how Vietnamese English language teachers negotiate moral dilemmas as teachers. It draws on interviewed-based research with Vietnamese English language teachers as they talk about their teaching within the frames of global and national imperatives about good English teaching and their views of teacher professionalism. It shows the complex normative renegotiations in which these teachers are engaged. There is a quiet revolution in the society’s understanding of teacher professionalism as English language teachers negotiate global and national norms that define ELT. In the same vein, these ‘global’ and ‘national’ professionalism norms are not always regarded as being mutually exclusive by Vietnamese teachers of English. The norms as well are seen by them as both controlling and liberating, and are at the same time manipulated by these teachers in different ways and at various levels.