PV:Hello Bar, Misswent to the United States and attended the first classes with many colleagues from many other countries around the world. Could you share about this trip?
Teacher Duong Thi Thanh:The Fulbright Distinguished Teaching Program is a cultural and educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State through the International Research and Exchange Organization (IREX), which directly organizes and implements the program. This is an annual exchange program for outstanding secondary school teachers in various subjects around the world. Candidates are selected through an open and fair competition process based on their teaching ability and passion for education in Vietnam. Participating in this program, I and 3 other teachers from Hai Duong, Dak Lak, Khanh Hoa provinces were selected and I was trained in teaching methods at the Faculty of Education of Montana State University, Montana State and will have the opportunity to intern at a US high school for two to three weeks, participating in cultural and community service activities in Washington, DC. The entire program lasts for 6 weeks until the end of October 2022.
PV:How were your first days in your country, they must have been very interesting?
Teacher Duong Thi Thanh:This is my first time going abroad and I was really nervous before this trip. During this trip, my companion only went with me to Korea and then we took two flights to two different locations. Overcoming the confusion, up to this point I have gotten used to the daily life and study schedule. Attending this program, our class has 21 students, each from a different country. In the first days, because of the quarantine, we had to study online for the first three days. Now, we have been studying directly and on the first day I was really surprised because the class was very comfortable. During the exchange, if a student said something wrong, the lecturer was also very gentle when commenting, such as "I understand what you mean but if you did it differently, it would be better". This helped me reduce a lot of pressure and was quite interesting. In addition to studying in the classroom, we can study in the garden, we have also been invited to visit the teachers' homes. A few days ago, I met an American teacher and he shared that he has been to 30 countries in the world but Vietnam is one of the countries he loves the most, he knows a lot about Vietnamese culture. I am really proud of my country and this is an opportunity for me to introduce and promote Vietnam to international friends.
PV:I understand that to be selected for this program, you had to go through many difficulties and spent a lot of time preparing. Could you share about your journey?
Teacher Duong Thi Thanh:I often research teacher training programs and go through Facebook pages for teachers and I came across this program. At first, I applied purely out of curiosity, just wanting to try my hand. I applied in January 2021 and by September 2021, when I finally made my decision, I had gone through many rounds and written many essays on many different topics, such as writing about my school, what you will do for the community after participating in the program and why you chose the program.
Personally, during my participation, I consulted with some colleagues to complete my essay. However, all of my articles were written from my work experience and my own wishes. I said that I was teaching at a high school in a semi-mountainous area of Thanh Chuong district and there were many students who were ethnic minority children living in the resettlement areas of Ban Ve Hydropower Plant. Many students here have never had access to advanced methods and have never had native teachers to help them have the opportunity to communicate with foreigners. As an English teacher, I want to participate in this program to be able to access new teaching methods, improve my skills to be able to teach students better.
I also shared that, for teachers in rural areas like us, applying for scholarships seems very strange. Therefore, I joined this program with the hope of changing the thinking of teachers in difficult areas... My article is simple like that and I know that compared to my colleagues, I may not be as excellent. However, I love learning, love to explore and really want to join this program. The selection of candidates lasted for 9 months and in mid-September I received a notice from the program. Indeed, while waiting for the results, I and many other colleagues were very nervous, like waiting for the university entrance exam results. And participating in the program for me was a great fortune.
PV:She has been an English teacher at Thanh Chuong 3 High School for nearly 15 years. Compared to other favorable areas, teaching English in district schools will certainly have many difficulties. So, what is your biggest concern?
Teacher Duong Thi Thanh:When I first came to the school (2008), many students were still studying the old curriculum and mainly focused on grammar. Recently, there have been changes in learning English, but teaching is still very difficult. What I am most concerned about with foreign languages is that students are not confident enough to communicate and their English communication is still limited, they do not have an environment to practice. Even teachers, not everyone is bold enough to change their perspective and is willing to invest in speaking and listening practice.
There are many reasons for these difficulties, partly because students are shy to speak, and exams in high school do not focus on listening and speaking, so students have no motivation to practice communication. However, when we go abroad, we realize that being able to communicate fluently in listening and speaking is extremely important. Because sometimes we can visualize the problem in our head but cannot express it and cannot express our point of view - that greatly limits communication.
PV:Foreign languages have become an important subject, especially in the era of globalization. But teaching and learning foreign languages effectively is certainly not easy. How do you personally organize teaching and learning to create excitement for students?
Teacher Duong Thi Thanh: I grew up in Do Luong district and no one in my family is a teacher. However, since I was a child, I liked this job and chose pedagogy as my passion. Talking about the teaching profession, I think it is a hard job, not easy if you want to have a quality lesson. Therefore, as teachers, we have to change ourselves every day to keep up with the trend and meet the current teaching requirements. Along with the traditional teaching method, we will also try to renew the lessons through video clips, organize online games with many different topics to create excitement for students. Fortunately, at our school, all innovations are supported by the school, even when there are lessons where I ask students to bring their mobile phones to class to participate in games.
Teaching also requires perseverance. For example, with 15-minute exercises, if I do it normally, it only takes me 45 seconds to 1 minute to complete my grading. However, if the exercise is 15 minutes, requiring students to record a clip to talk about a topic, I may have to grade it for 10-15 minutes because I have to listen carefully to each lesson, analyze each small pronunciation mistake to correct them. Thus, sometimes it takes me nearly a month to correct students' work.
This way of marking sometimes takes a lot of time, but in return I have the joy of seeing students improve every day, they pronounce better, are not afraid to speak and become more confident every day. There are students who, when they first saw me marking their papers like this, blamed the teacher for being difficult, strict or giving low scores. However, later on, they understood and participated actively in the lessons.
PV:Comprehensive and fundamental innovation in education and training is a major policy of the education sector and to be successful, teachers play a very important role. Faced with the requirements of innovation, many teachers say that there is too much pressure, they are afraid of difficulties and changes. How do you accept this?
Teacher Duong Thi Thanh:Everything new is stressful but with time, if we approach it step by step we can get used to it and adapt.
Besides the anxiety, I am also very excited about the new, although compared to the old program, the new program requires more and is more difficult. Teachers teaching the new program, in addition to knowledge, we must have more skills, must be equipped with cultural backgrounds, and understanding to create quality lessons. To have a successful lesson, teachers must invest a lot. However, innovation is an inevitable trend and that will change the way of teaching and learning, and I will welcome it enthusiastically. If anything, to make teaching more effective, I hope that schools in difficult areas like ours can connect with experts to help teachers design quality lessons, organize extracurricular lessons and help us gain more skills.
I also thank the organizers and the school for creating conditions for me to participate in this program. This is an opportunity for me to learn many new methods and improve my skills to serve my future teaching.
PV:Thanks for joining the conversation!
