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Teachers play key roles in advancing the use of mobile devices for language learning in both formal and informal settings. However, in contexts where top‐down educational policies are prevalent, the roles of teachers are usually overemphasized while learners–the end‐users of educational technologies remain largely ignored. Less understood is what roles students expect teachers to play in facilitating their acceptance of mobile‐assisted language learning. This study was conducted in an attempt to fill this gap using the extended technology acceptance model (TAM). Survey data from 293 higher education learners of English in Vietnam were analyzed by the Rasch‐based path model. Results indicated that students showed stronger desire for teachers' orientation toward appropriate use of mobile resources for language learning both inside and outside the classroom than teachers' demonstration of mobile‐assisted language learning activities in the classroom. The findings offer useful implications for teachers, researchers, and language education policy makers in fostering the use of mobile devices for language learning. What is already known about this topic? Teachers' role in promoting learners' adoption of mobile‐assisted language learning is under‐researched.In contexts dominated by top‐down educational policies, the voice of learners is largely ignored.Learners' expectation of teachers' roles in promoting their adoption of mobile‐assisted language learning needs more empirical evidence.What this paper adds? This paper highlighted the important roles of teachers in orienting students toward appropriate mobile learning resources for out‐of‐class learning.Teachers were considered by learners as "guide on the side" rather than "sage on the stage" in enhancing their adoption of mobile‐assisted language learning.Implications for practice/policy Teacher training programs on mobile‐assisted language learning can be redesigned to enable teachers to better support mobile‐assisted language learning in and outside the classroom.Teachers should be better able to enrich their knowledge of various mobile learning resources to support their students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]