Teacher Nguyen Quoc Hung: Why are Vietnamese people bad at English?

Teaching and learning English in Vietnam needs to change so that the quality of training in this language is more effective and practical...

It has been 30 years since we started investing in English development (1986-2016), it is time for us to take a step back, celebrate our achievements and return to the areas where we are struggling.

When it comes to achievements, in every field we have outstanding people, for example in in-service training, some have become television teachers, some use English very effectively in their work, but looking at the majority of in-service training, it is still "taking the test on the spot, passing depends on the teacher", the quality is not as we expect.

Introducing Russian and Chinese into primary school teaching needs to be carefully considered.

Among the tens of thousands of people studying English at the center, there are also successful people, but the majority still "climb the greasy pole" because in general, the center is still a training place with the viewpoint "I have a product, invite you to learn according to my product" regardless of whether that person is a driver, a salesperson, a student or a doctor. Besides, it is also a place to experiment with learning styles to attract students such as fast learning (speaking English in a few weeks), slow learning (bachelor's degree), learning tricks (learning through sleep), learning through meditation, learning without effort, learning enthusiastically...

What we care about the most is high school students. Apart from excellent students such as those who won the English Speaking Award from Television and the English Poetry Award from the British Council, the majority do not meet the average standard because in the 2015 high school graduation exam, nearly 90% of candidates were in the below average bracket.

Although Project 2020 announced the results of the competency assessment exam for 12th grade students studying the pilot English program at high school level in 2016, on May 24-25, 2016, with the number of candidates being 4,932 and counting all four skills, only 21.85% did not meet the requirements, but also in the 2016 high school graduation exam, the results were still around 88% of students below average.

Looking at the root cause, we will discover many convincing reasons. First of all, the curriculum. Unlike developed countries where they use checklists, in Vietnam, the curriculum decides everything. Most public schools use curriculum compiled by Vietnamese people.

In the private sector, textbooks are selected by one or two people, often people who are not experts in textbook evaluation, from a foreign book collection according to their interests, trends, and the need to be "different from others". If a textbook is too difficult for the student's ability to absorb, for example, the vocabulary is too large, the sentence patterns are too difficult, the number of exercises is too many, the topics are too unfamiliar, the concepts are too new... then the quality of learning is obvious.

In countries where English is taught, there are typically three approaches to curriculum development:

One is written by local people. Its weakness is that the English of non-native speakers cannot be guaranteed to be correct, the writer is often not professionally trained in textbook compilation, including methodology issues, etc. Its strength is that the writer understands local needs, characteristics of learners, difficulties of learners, and local culture.

Second, use a foreign textbook written by a native speaker from a famous publisher. This type of textbook has strengths and weaknesses opposite to those written by locals.

Third, cooperation between domestic and foreign publishers, local authors and English and American native authors writing together. This is the best option because each side overcomes the weaknesses of the other.

Faced with the issue of textbooks, Project 2020 has researched and proposed a set of 44 criteria for evaluating textbooks, aiming to manage and help localities choose suitable textbooks from foreign material warehouses. However, it was only approved and announced at the end of 2015, that is, after 29 years of English development. Better late than never. We are waiting for the circular guiding the implementation and the institutions that come with it.

What is the level of English teachers?

The second reason is the level of teachers. Teachers at all levels, English proficiency has been improved compared to the survey of over 8,000 teachers of Project 2020 in 2010 with the result that over 90% of teachers did not meet the requirements, thanks to the plan to build a 6-level competency framework and a set of 5-domain standards that helped the Project build teacher standards, and standardize teacher training programs.

However, in many places, the English proficiency of teachers still has a significant impact on the quality of students. In addition, there is the teaching method of teachers. The method of teaching adults is completely different from the method of teaching children to learn English. These are two worlds operating with the same purpose but the techniques are so different that teaching children is like teaching in Alice's fairyland, while teaching adults is like teaching on earth. We are still in a state of teaching children like teaching dwarfs (dwarves are still adults). That is not to mention the technique of teaching foreign languages ​​to children in the world has left us far behind.

As far as I know, Project 2020 has been based on the English competency framework standards to set out standards for teachers at all levels, training standards, new training models, creating flexibility in teacher training, and applying technology to different conditions. So we should more strongly implement these achievements into practice so that it directly impacts classroom teachers.

The third reason is the imbalance between training and testing. Most teachers believe that "learning one thing, testing another" comes from the specific situation that the national curriculum stipulates training in all four skills, but we cannot afford to organize tests on all four skills in the high school graduation exam for millions of students, so the exam will have to lean towards areas such as vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension and essay writing. This makes teachers create their own slogan "study what you test", plus our concept of "teaching grammar" is also far behind the world's new thinking. As a result, no matter how hard students study, no matter how high their scores are, they still cannot speak or listen.

As far as I know, Project 2020 has also conducted training of testing experts, both domestically and internationally, with a number of about 1,000 people, and has built measuring scales according to international, national and local standards. So it is time for us to mobilize those achievements to improve the testing situation.

The fourth cause is negative phenomena. Up to now, no one has counted what types of negative phenomena there are and their impacts. But if we pay attention, we will see problems such as: if the score canrunIf so, is there still a need for quality education? If certificates canbuyIf so, can the teacher's level be improved?

After all, looking back, we have the feeling that all the complex measures, all the modern strategies seem to have been completed, but they have not yet reached every class, every layer. In my opinion, we need a lot of national surveys to find out what factors are preventing the achievements from being put into practice. In my research career, I have speculated about the problem based on my experience, knowledge and personal contacts. But my biggest lesson is: surveys open my eyes.

Anyway, it is time for us to think about the needs of developing other foreign languages, not to absolutize English, considering it a magic wand for integration. Adding foreign languages, no matter what, to high schools is necessary and normal. If in the 70s of the last century, we required English to be introduced into schools, we would have encountered unforeseen difficulties. And if in 2017, we immediately introduced Russian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Korean, ... into schools, the difficulties would not be small, because the English language status has not yet met the requirements.

People in and out of the industry have a common concern: "One can't do anything, let alone two or three at the same time", "Our children are not guinea pigs", "Children cannot learn two foreign languages ​​at the same time". I think what has to be done has to be done, but choosing the "drop point" is something to consider.

Currently, many areas are waiting for more attention from the State. First of all, universities with foreign language faculties such as the University of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Hanoi University, Danang University of Foreign Languages, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Ho Chi Minh City National University. In addition, high schools are having Russian, Chinese, Japanese classes... which need more investment for development. Then there are training areas that need Chinese such as training Oriental medicine doctors, Oriental studies researchers,... or Korean, Japanese such as foreign labor recruitment facilities... And when the time comes, social needs will naturally flare up, avoiding breakthroughs with adverse effects./.

According to VOV