In the globalization era, the notion of learning English to communicate with native English speakers has become outdated. Instead, the international communication happens mostly between non-native speakers who belong to different cultural and linguistic communities. This phenomenon has promoted the development of English as a lingua franca (ELF). An increasing number of studies on ELF have been conducted worldwide, from English speaking countries to non-English speaking ones. Although various dimensions of ELF have received a great deal of attention from researchers, hardly can a study of this kind focusing on high school EFL in-service teachers and students be found in the existing literature. In an attempt to address the research gap, the present research aimed to identify the perceptions of Vietnamese EFL in-service teachers and students from gifted versus non-gifted high schools towards ELF. In this mixed method study, quantitative data was collected using a scale to measure perceptions towards ELF developed by Curran and Chern (2017). After the quantitative data had been analyzed, qualitative data was gathered by semi-structured interviews. The results show that both Vietnamese high school EFL teachers and students had positive perceptions towards ELF in general, and towards each of the dimensions of ELF in particular. Additionally, there were some statistically significant differences between the perceptions of sub-groups of Vietnamese EFL teachers and students from gifted versus non-gifted high schools. It is hoped that the study contributes to the literature of the field and assist policy makers when it comes to formulating policy to enhance English communication skills at high school level, particularly in Vietnamese context. Besides, the current study is beneficial for teachers and learners to have an insight into how they should teach and learn English to communicate effectively.

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