TPO - On January 9, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training held a conference to discuss solutions to narrow the gap in foreign language teaching and learning quality between inner-city and suburban schools with the participation of thousands of teachers and school principals.
TPO - On January 9, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training held a conference to discuss solutions to narrow the gap in foreign language teaching and learning quality between inner-city and suburban schools with the participation of thousands of teachers and school principals.
At the conference, Mr. Brandon N Sinkovic (USA), Academic Director of an English center with 9 years of teaching students at centers and public schools, said that the biggest problem preventing students from acquiring English is that they seem to be forced to approach English as a subject, not a language. Students learn English in class but have almost no opportunity to communicate.
“This approach can be likened to a football player who learns how to play football by watching the game on TV, but never steps onto the pitch. How can one learn a language without ever using it?”, he said.
Mr. Brandon N Sinkovic also cited Cambridge data on the CEFR scale for language teachers, students need about 200 hours of instruction in the target language to improve 1 CEFR level. In fact, schools in Vietnam are providing limited hours of English lessons along with a lack of language environment, he affirmed that students do not have enough time to progress.
In addition, he also pointed out that Vietnamese students have too few opportunities to speak English and are often too shy to communicate in front of their classmates. In a class of 40 or even 50 students, speaking becomes a speech, which is the biggest fear of most people in the world. “With such conditions, it is not surprising that Vietnamese students are often the weakest in speaking skills,” Mr. Brandon N Sinkovic shared.
Students are invested in English courses by their parents, but the problem is that the classes are crowded, and students of different levels study the same program. This makes advanced students feel bored and stagnant, while weaker students feel overwhelmed and discouraged.
Efforts to get students to "speak English"
Mr. Phung Ngoc Oanh, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Ba Vi district, shared the difficulties in teaching and improving the quality of foreign languages for both teachers and students. Since 2019, Ba Vi has implemented a project to promote the quality of foreign language teaching and learning with the cooperation and support of the University of Foreign Languages (VNU Hanoi); schools in the inner city help train staff, share teaching methods, organize programs to create an environment for students to speak English, and invest in standard classrooms. With the determination for students to learn English for their own use, Mr. Oanh proposed that the Hanoi Department of Education and Training have a special mechanism for teachers to go abroad for training, promote the application of AI in teaching, etc.
Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Education and Training Mr. Pham Quoc Toan said that the results of the high school graduation exam in foreign languages in Hanoi over the past years are shown in a saddle-shaped graph with two peaks showing two different groups of abilities. In which, one peak of the graph is at the 8-point and 9-point mark and the other peak is approximately 5 points.
According to Mr. Toan, the two peaks in the graph show the large gap in English learning between inner-city and suburban students. To narrow that gap, the industry has made efforts to implement many solutions, including innovating teaching methods, deploying advanced learning software, using artificial intelligence (AI) to support self-study, organizing online classes with native teachers, encouraging students to self-study foreign languages through technology platforms...
The Hanoi Department of Education and Training will launch the “Self-study Month” movement; pilot the model of twin schools, model classes and the foreign language self-study movement. From June 2025, the Department will replicate the model in schools across the city, ensuring that suburban students have the opportunity to access the same quality of education as inner-city students.
Source: https://tienphong.vn/hoc-sinh-viet-nam-hoc-tieng-anh-nhung-co-qua-it-co-hoi-de-giao-tiep-post1708208.tpo
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