Reading the article 'English teachers stutter when communicating with foreigners' on VietNamNet , many readers expressed agreement with the author's opinion.

Reader Dien Nguyen - a teacher with many years of experience in the profession, affirmed that "he has witnessed foreigners visiting, and English teachers 'running away' because they cannot communicate".

This leads to many consequences. Specifically, a reader with the email address Myhong shared: “I studied English from grade 6 to grade 12 but could not speak a single sentence. After graduating from university, I studied for another 1.5 years, I could speak a little but my grammar was better. When I went to work, I played tennis with foreigners so my English communication improved significantly.”

Many other readers also shared that they "struggled" with English for a long time but were not effective.

Also from here, some readers analyzed the limitations of teaching and learning English today. Specifically, reader Le Minh Quoc wrote: “Learning must go hand in hand with practice, while the quality of English teachers is limited, the class size is too large, focusing on grammar skills, not focusing on speaking and listening practice. More importantly, there is not much of a communication environment.”

Reader Dinhluong Le also commented that the most important reason is that currently public schools are overloaded with students, 50-55 students/class, how can they practice and have the opportunity to speak?

According to this reader: “There are students who do not communicate in English for the entire class period. Another part is that English must be taught at the same level. A class of 50-55 students has some good students, some good students, some average students, and the level is not uniform. If the teacher speaks English 90-100% of the time in class, many students do not understand. But if the teacher speaks Vietnamese a lot, the students who are good at English do not want to study because they are bored.”

Readers also asked the question: "Why can the centers do it?". He said: "It's not that the teachers there are good, the curriculum there is good, but firstly, they arrange students according to their level, and test (take entrance exams) students. Second, they have many tools to support teaching and learning. Third, the classes are quite small, usually 10-15 students/group."

Sharing the same opinion, reader GiaTran also said: “With 50-60 students/class, don’t expect too much from the output. The program’s policy is to focus on communication, but in reality, teachers have to turn into sales people to run KPIs because the grammar part takes up too much time.”

How to teach and learn English effectively?

Reader GiaTran suggested that we should focus on teaching vocabulary, diagrammatic thinking, presentations, etc. Schools should rebuild their curriculum and not force students to take grammar tests. “The problem lies more in the training program than the human factor,” he said.

Reader Phuoc Tam Nguy said: "I see that our current high school English program has almost no listening part, if any, it is very little. We suggest that we greatly enhance listening, speaking, writing, and grammar."

Reader Vu Hoang also contributed solutions. This reader offered several options:

1. Prepare bilingual books for all subjects from primary school up.

2. Regularly incorporate bilingual activities or clubs.

3. Encourage everyone to learn English for integration purposes.

Reader Konnichiwa also believes that early English education is necessary. This reader gives some reasons: “Why can a 5-6 year old child, whether Vietnamese or American, speak fluently and understand their mother tongue without knowing how to write, read, or know grammar?”

According to this reader, the Ministry of Education and Training must invest in and apply bilingualism right from kindergartens. “Accordingly, we need to let children listen, speak, sing, and play in English... Learning to write and read should start from grade 1 and up, focusing on learning conversation through songs, games, plays... In class, the time spent "speaking" English must be more than "writing" English.”

Reader LeTien "suggests" to allow the use of English in daily life: Name services, school names... in addition to Vietnamese, using English.

Mr. Nguyen Bao Thong said: “The current English curriculum is too fast, too much, students and teachers do not have enough time to practice and memorize. If it is a 7-year program, in the first 2 years, teachers only need to let students focus on the present simple tense and some grammar structures, and the rest of the time, let them learn a certain vocabulary, maybe 500 words. Students need to review over and over again, so they can communicate.

After having a solid foundation, students will continue to learn more. At this time, teachers will explain to students the relationship between tenses and expand gradually and appropriately. The ultimate goal is that after graduating from grade 12, students will be able to read and write fluently and communicate fluently! This is a long-term goal! Therefore, the foundation building stage must be slow enough, when the foundation is solid, the teaching and learning speed will be increased. As for those who have their own goals and need to master English faster, they will find ways to learn more."

Reader Thanh Duc commented: “Learning English to get good grades in exams has been our teaching and learning habit for a long time. We need to change the curriculum, programs and methods, focusing on the 4 skills for high school level. If we can do this, teaching and learning English will improve.”

VietNamNet Readers

The shock of an English teacher being 'stiff-tongued' in front of native speakers despite achieving 8.5 IELTS. Having achieved 8.5 IELTS and running an English teaching Youtube channel with nearly 300,000 subscribers before studying abroad, Thinh was shocked when he stuttered when talking to native speakers and was criticized by his friends for 'having a high score but speaking poorly'.