3 Major challenges for the English education in Vietnam

Posted on 2019-03-30 by
English education in Vietnam has to change and the change must start from the quality of
English teacher in Vietnam. Here are three reasons for this change.

I. Vietnam’s English training system

Vietnam relies heavily on learning grammar, writing and not focus on speaking and communicating in
English. Vietnamese schools and universities often teach their students about advance grammar and
vocabulary that rarely being used in real life rather. On the other hand, Vietnamese education in
English often neglects the practice of speaking and communicating in English.

Before this fact, changes are inevitable. Because if the education system does not change, the
market will do it on its own. Students are wasting a lot of time learning English at school, but cannot
use it in real life. Meanwhile, a large number of employees have to go out to re-learn English to adapt
to the market’s requirements. This is a huge waste of resources of society and needs to be changed.

II. Too many students in one class:

English teacher in Vietnam is that there are too many students in one class. With the current large
number of students, teaching focused on pronunciation and communication (practical) instead of
grammar will pose a big challenge for the whole system.

Firstly, the evaluation of Students through the ability to pronounce/communicate is much more difficult
when the classroom is too large. Furthermore, with the thin resources of qualified teachers to assess
the pronunciation/communication ability of the students makes the problem even more difficult.

Secondly, teachers will have a harder time to manage the classroom if the number of students is too
big. In teaching English, the teachers should pay attention to each and every student in order to really
help them in becoming a good English speaker. However, this seems impossible if the number of
students in one classroom is forty!

III. The quality of English teachers in Vietnam

Vietnam are lacking in both quality and quantity. This makes program innovation much more difficult
for Vietnamese training system. Even if the educational program changes in the direction of
pronunciation training instead of grammar, the small part of teachers is not qualified and bravery to
accurately assess students.

Even in reputable schools with students of 8.0 IELTS or 100 TOEFL iBT, the quality of English
teachers is a big question mark. If standardizing the quality of teachers through TOEFL iBT or IELTS
scores, I am confident that a large number of university teachers have low, even very low scores. Of
course, a large percentage of teachers will also have high and very high scores.

In conclusion, English education in Vietnam must change. The first change, though, must start from
the English teacher in Vietnam itself. If they pronounce correctly, communicate well, they will train
students and students to pronounce well and communicate. To do this, it is necessary to be more
rigorous about the standard of English teachers (at least equivalent to 90 TOEFL iBT or 7.0 IELTS),
along with the necessary roadmap and support from the school and the Ministry of Education.