Carl Owen, the Country Manager for ISC-UKEAS overseas studies department, addressed DTiNews’ readers about existing challenges and weakness of Vietnamese learners when they study English.
 |
| Mr. Carl Owen is a qualified EFL teacher and has taught English as a foreign language for nearly 20 years in England, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. He was an IELTS examiner for 8 years and for the last 3 years he has worked for ISC-UKEAS in Taiwan and Vietnam. He has a passion for helping students both improve their English and find the perfect overseas study destination and programmes for their needs. He has lived in Asia for 17 years and in Vietnam for 2. |
Would you please tell us what challenges Vietnamese learners are facing in regards their English improvement?
Regarding improving their language proficiency, the biggest problems for Vietnamese language learners in my mind, apart from the obvious pronunciation problems, is the ability to use language naturally without the interference from their first language (L1) NOT SURE ABOUT "L1", never seen it, which is Vietnamese. Many Vietnamese students have good vocabulary and know grammar rules better than some native teachers but many use it incorrectly and also have their grammar adversely affected by first language interference.
Vietnamese learners at schools study hours of vocabulary and grammar rules in an ’intensive’ learning style but why do they still have problems with English? This is because they do not learn ‘extensively’. By this, I mean that they do not have enough practice at ‘actually’ reading, writing, listening and speaking in a natural way such as those in ways that children all over the world learn languages; this is by using the language in a natural context such as writing an email to a friend, having a discussion about solving a problem, listening to a weather forecast or a TV news station, or reading a menu.
What can they do to deal with these difficulties?
Learners need to learn to ‘use’ the language. You can meet tour guides in Vietnam that speak English very well and who have never intensively studied grammar and vocabulary, but they have used it for years. I am a fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker, but I have only ever studied this language seriously for about 100 hours. However, I lived in Taiwan for 14 years so I had years to practice the language naturally.
Students must practice reading, listening, writing and speaking more. If you want to become a good swimmer you don’t just learn out of the water about technique, breathing and do weight-training in the gym to build up your muscles. You also must hit the pool every day and swim for hours so that your style becomes natural and you don’t have to think about it; it comes naturally. Learners need to make a weekly schedule to get enough ‘fluency’ practice. They need to set a time each day and say, ‘I will just read/write/listen or speak with a friend for 30 minutes in English’.
An example of fluency practice is to read regularly like they would read a Vietnamese novel or newspaper and not look in a dictionary for words they don’t understand, but just read and try to guess what they don’t understand. This ‘guessing’ is a very important and fundamental language skill. With enough natural practice they will improve and learn these skills naturally, or with some help from a good teacher.
How will language centres and English teachers help students to improve their situation?
Studying English in a prestigious language centre such as AAC can help you develop your overall skills. They have a system from teaching techniques, necessary materials and multimedia equipment just to help you reach that goal. Just grammar and vocabulary knowledge is not enough if you don’t ‘jump in and start swimming’! Students must practice using the language naturally in class a lot more than they traditionally do. They must be prepared to make mistakes and learn from them and understand that the most important thing about a language is to communicate ideas and thoughts which is what we do when we read, listen, write or talk. Teachers will help you with all of these things.
Apart from the normal English classes, those centres also have clubs and extra-curricular activities for students to practice English in real life such as English Clubs, debate clubs and more. They are surprisingly useful for English learners.
What goals should Vietnamese learners set ?
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step," as the famous Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu said. I think that if you have a good regimen for study as I have outlined below, then you do not need to set lengthy targets, but just keep up regular and varied practice, especially reading, and you will realize your goals sooner then you might expect.
Besides English classes at school, what should learners do to better their Englishl?
Here are some examples of a fluency practice regimen: Try listening to internet radio or music or watching CNN every morning when you eat your breakfast, or read a book on the bus each day or for 30 minutes before bedtime. You can find pen pals from all over the world to write emails to each day after dinner and it is easy to set up an English speaking or debate club with friends or classmates.
Currently, you are the Country Manager of ISC-UKEAS Vietnam and helping and supporting students to improve their English before they go overseas for study. What are your experiences in this area?
As I have said, students need to have a daily regimen or schedule to practice their English skills in order to improve and this is done mostly outside of the class. For students going overseas to study, they must reach a certain level of English and it can be very difficult and time consuming to do that outside of a native English speaking country. Therefore, to improve their IELTS and TOEFL scores they must put in enough ‘extensive’ fluency practice, as I have talked about, to reach their required English level. I think for these tests, reading formal, topic-based articles on the internet and in newspapers and magazines is the best way to improve your topic based vocabulary, grammar, and understanding of ‘style’ and ‘organisation’ in speaking and writing. These are often the hardest skills for Vietnamese, and other English students.
Also, students must not put off doing these tests until they think they are ready for them. In applying for overseas study, it is important to do an IELTS or TOEFL test early so that students can tell which area they have a weakness in and then work strongly on that skill. For example; writing, to improve their scores the next time they take the test.
Thank you!
