Recently, the Politburo issued Conclusion 91-KL/TW on continuing to implement Resolution 29-NQ/TW dated November 4, 2013 of the 11th Party Central Committee "On fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education and training, meeting the requirements of industrialization and modernization in the conditions of a socialist-oriented market economy and international integration".
An important content mentioned in Conclusion 91-KL/TW is: "Focus on improving foreign language skills of students, gradually making English the second language in schools".
Over the years, the Ministry of Education and Training has implemented many solutions to improve the quality of teaching and learning foreign languages in general and English in particular. However, gradually making English a second language in schools is a big issue that requires a specific strategy and roadmap.
As the person who wrote a letter to the Politburo and the Secretariat, the Central Executive Committee of the Party proposing the need for a national policy on teaching and learning English in the Vietnamese national education system, Professor Tran Van Nhung, former Deputy Minister of Education and Training, said that English is a tool for communication, for finding opportunities, finding friends, developing science and technology, finding opportunities for business, trading...
“Our young generation is very smart. Now, as the world enters the era of the 4.0 industrial revolution and artificial intelligence, information technology and foreign languages, especially English, are two tools of top strategic importance.
In Vietnam, we are doing very well in information technology, Vietnamese people are very quick, hard-working, and like logic. But English is weak. Thus, it will be difficult for us to "compete" with other countries in the current context, when we are in a fierce but healthy competition, which means competing with capacity," said Professor Tran Van Nhung.
According to the former Deputy Minister of Education and Training, in 2000, the Party Central Committee issued Directive 58/CT-TW on “Promoting the application and development of information technology to serve the cause of industrialization and modernization”. When this Directive was issued, the entire political and social system participated in developing information technology. And after a quarter of a century, we can see spectacular progress in the application and development of information technology in Vietnam.
If there were a directive similar to Directive 58/CT-TW on “Promoting the application and development of information technology to serve the cause of industrialization and modernization” but for foreign languages, especially English, English proficiency would gradually improve. With the participation of the entire political and social system, learning, teaching and using English would be implemented strongly and drastically and would also have spectacular progress.
Professor Tran Van Nhung proposed the qualities that people need to have in the era of Industrial Revolution 4.0, digital transformation, and artificial intelligence (AI) including: Good health, a kind and patriotic heart, a good brain, good life skills, English (and foreign languages), IT/ICT.
Regarding the current quality of foreign language teaching and learning, Associate Professor, Dr. Ha Le Kim Anh, Vice Principal of the University of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, commented that over the past 10 years, English teaching in Vietnam has had many positive changes. A number of legal framework regulations related to foreign languages in general and English in particular have been issued. Along with the active activities of the 2020 foreign language project with the attention of the Party, Government, Ministry of Education and Training, English teaching and development of English teachers at secondary and university levels have received attention and achieved certain results. However, foreign language teaching and learning still faces certain difficulties such as lack of English teachers, especially in mountainous areas, and lack of qualified teachers.
In terms of awareness, some parents and teachers still think that English is a subject and that they just need to pass the subject without realizing that English plays an important role in creating competitiveness and reaching out to the world. This makes it very difficult to create momentum and improve the quality of using English in career development.
Dr. Le Duc Thuan, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Ba Dinh District, Hanoi, also said that there is still a difference in the qualifications of foreign language teachers between schools and within a school. Besides, there is a shortage of teachers with good expertise and experience.
The 2018 general education program requires a larger number of teachers than the old program, but recruitment is relatively difficult because good teachers and good students sometimes no longer choose to be teachers but have switched to other jobs.
Along with that, the difference in student level between schools, the difference between classes, because currently there is no regulation allowing for surveys on class placement. The school board only bases on learning results, and these results certainly make it difficult to assess the actual quality of students.
Regarding education in Ba Dinh district, according to Dr. Le Duc Thuan, although the district has paid much attention to investment in the recent period (2,300 billion VND for the last 5 years), the above figure still does not meet the very high requirements of foreign language teaching in general, and English teaching in the 4.0 era.
“The goals of the 2018 general education program are already there, but when implemented, there is a situation where teachers teach for exams. Students study for exams, parents also let their children study for scores... so the goal of teaching foreign languages has been deviated. The four skills of listening - speaking - reading - writing, students can be very confident in reading and writing, but communication is still limited. I think English is a foreign language, so if there is no environment, no encouragement, no methodology... it will be very difficult,” said Dr. Le Duc Thuan.
Source: https://vov.vn/xa-hoi/tam-ly-hoc-de-thi-lam-sai-lech-muc-tieu-cua-day-va-hoc-ngoai-ngu-post1124767.vov
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