Foreign language lecturers now still talk too much in teaching hours, while this time should be spent encouraging student conversation to ensure the effective teaching of foreign languages.
University graduates cannot meet foreign language standards
Le Duc Han from Phu Tho province finished school two years ago. However, the former student of the Hanoi University for Civil Engineering still cannot find a good job in his trained major, because he could not pass the English exam.
Han said that he began learning English at high school, but he did not spend much time on the subject because he concentrated on three main subjects to prepare for the university entrance exam. With the English program at the university, and he never could pass the English exam.
Nguyen Thi Thuong, a former student of the Hanoi Academy of Journalism and Communication, said that she got nearly nothing in foreign language skills from her four years at the university. In order to fulfil her tasks at the media company where she is working, Thuong has to go to an evening foreign language class.
Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien also said at a conference discussing the implementation of the plan to teach foreign languages at universities, that while universities have made considerable progress in teaching other subjects, they have made nearly no progress in teaching foreign languages. “A lot of students still cannot use foreign languages after they graduate. This year is really a bitter defeat,” he said.
One of the reasons behind this, according to the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), is the unreasonable curriculums drawn up by universities which are too heavy in theory. Students simply go to class to learn grammar rules, while they cannot practise the four major skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing.
Dr Nguyen Ngoc Hung from the National Foreign Language Plan by 2020 has pointed out that lecturers now talk too much, while this is exactly what the students need to do. “Only the student-centred teaching method is the effective method,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Duong Bach Nhat from the Duy Tan University has blamed the problem on the different levels of new students. He said that it is very difficult to classify students to put them into different classes in order to have appropriate teaching methods.
MOET vows to stop “foreign language illiteracy”
In order to stop “foreign language illiteracy”, MOET has initiated the National Foreign Language Plan by 2020. According to Nguyen Le Huong, Deputy Director of the University Education Department of the ministry, the plan strives to have all university graduates meet certain qualifications in foreign languages.
Under the plan, the graduates of non-foreign language schools need to understand the main ideas of speakers and handle set situations. This will be the minimum requirement for university graduates.
Nevertheless, the ministry has been warned that this would be a very difficult task for schools, especially when they still have poor material facilities and lack standardized lecturers. Hung thinks that in order to do this, it is necessary to set up foreign language faculties at the schools which have good conditions, and develop the network of teachers.
MOET is planning to set up a new group for university entrance exam – A1 (A1 examinees will have to take three exams of mathematics, physics and English), which it hopes will help improve the English skills of students.
