While the flipped classroom (FC) has been increasingly used and well-researched in Western countries, little is known about its implementation in Vietnam. Utilising symbolic interactionism as the theoretical perspective, this study reports on research into English as a foreign language (EFL) students' perspectives of self-regulation and metacognition and how they went about these strategies in the FC at Hanoi University of Industry (HaUI). The study employed semi-structured interviews with 20 EFL students and five EFL teachers, and 30 observations of students' learning activities in both online learning and face-to-face settings. The findings revealed that students expressed a range of beliefs about self-regulative and metacognitive strategies, but these revealed inconsistencies across the cohort. While many students believed that they needed to be self-regulated learners, they lacked self-regulation and metacognition skills in the FC. The authors pointed to the underlying factors contributing to students' inadequate skills of self-regulation and metacognition. Suggestions are offered for Vietnamese higher education institutions.