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CURRENT CHALLENGES IN THE TEACHING OF TERTIARY ENGLISH

MAI THỊ LOAN
(TS; Đại học Ngoại ngữ, ĐHQG Hà Nội)
ABSTRACT: The study investigates challenges with regards to certain factors such as teaching materials,
teaching and learning facilities, teaching method, assessment system, etc lecturers of English encounter when
teaching English students at tertiary level in University of languages and international studies, Vietnam National
University, Hanoi, and recommends remedies to tackle those challenges. To make it clear, the study was to seek
the answers to the questions about the current challenges faced by tertiary English language lecturers and the
solutions to these challenges.
KEY WORDS: challenges, tertiary level, remedies, solutions
1. Introduction
The study was conducted at the University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS), one of the
seven member universities of Vietnam National University, Hanoi, which is a leading university in Vietnam.
ULIS is originally known as the School of Foreign Languages, founded in 1955 at Vietnam Boarding School.
After five decades of operation and development, ULIS has been recognized as the national leading center of
foreign language teacher and specialist education. This university consists of more than ten Faculties in different
languages such as English, Russian, French, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, German and Japanese; three Divisions
(Division of Educational Psychology, Division of Vietnamese linguistics and Culture, Division of Educational
Psychology); five Centers (Center for Foreign language Pedagogy studies and Quality control, Center for
Information technology, Center for Distant learning and Teacher’s quality improving, Center for International
education, and Center for testing), one Foreign language Specializing school, and one ULIS middle school. In
terms of academic programs, there exists a wide range of programs at this university including Undergraduate
programs, Fast-track programs, Joint Degree and Cooperative programs, Partnership Programs with Foreign
Universities and Colleges, Graduate programs, Articulation of programs, Continuing education and Upper
Secondary education.
It can be said that ULIS is a prestigious university in languages, linguistics, international studies and related
social sciences and humanities in Vietnam. The research about the current challenges in the teaching of tertiary
English in ULIS was conducted at the Faculty of English Language Teacher Education and Faculty of
Linguistics and Cultures of English speaking countries, two English Faculties belonging to ULIS. Graduate
students from these two Faculties are able to work as lecturers of English, translators, interpreters and many
other jobs of their choices. The English course at these two Faculties are divided into two stages. In the first
year, students just learn General English with four skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing. This stage aims at
providing students with practical English proficiency. In the latter stage, students learn theoretical subjects
appropriate to their majors such as Methodology, Translation, Pragmatics, Cross Culture, etc. English major
students graduating from these two Faculties are required standardized English proficiency at level 5 (C1) based
on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).
Major students at tertiary level at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi after completing their study in university must attain level 5 (C1) according to the
Common European Framework of Reference or Vietnamese Framework of Reference. These frameworks
include six levels in which level 1 is the last and level 6 is the best. Statistical figures over the recent years have
shown that a large number of students have dificulties graduating university as planned due to their English
competence below C1. Therefore, in order to meet the output requirements of the Ministry of Education, the
study revealed the current challenges of the teaching and learning in the major tertiary English classrooms in
ULIS, VNU and recommended appropriate respective solutions for the previously mentioned challenges.

2. Participants
The research involved fifteen lecturers of English belonging to Faculty of English Language Teacher
Education and Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of English speaking countries. They are all female and,
among whom, thirteen of them have ages ranging from 30-40 with more than ten years of teaching experience
and were already awarded Master degrees; and the rest aged over 40 with nearly 20 years of teaching experience
earned Doctor degrees in teaching English as a foreign language. All of these lecturers graduated from
University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi with excellent
learning results and were invited to work here as full time lecturers.
The participants of the study also include 100 English major students from Faculty of English Language
Teacher Education and Faculty of Linguistics and Cultures of English speaking countries. All of these students’
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English proficiency is considerably good due to high requirements of the university entrance exam. Their ages
range from 20-21 and half of them are the second year students. The second half are the third year students.
3. Data collection instruments
Survey questionnaire is incredibly helpful because researchers can save a plenty of time in delivering or
collecting the questionnaires, and it is convenient to summarize and report collected data by this way (Nunan,
1993). Therefore, in this study, the data collection instruments the author used are the questionnaire for the
lecturers and the questionnaire for the students. Some of the questions in the questionnaires are open-ended so
that the respondents had opportunities to give their own ideas about the items raised. These two questionnaires
are in Vietnamese to enable the respondents to understand exactly and avoid any misunderstanding. The
purposes, requirements of collecting data were clearly explained to both lecturers and students before they
answered the questions in the questionnaires. The set of questionnaire for the lecturers consists of five questions
with three main parts. The first part including three first questions aims to find out personal information about
the lecturers. The second part is the question four which finds out the existing challenges in teaching English for
the English major students. The last part is the question five which collects the lecturers’ suggestions to make
the teaching and learning situation more effective. The questionnaire for the students consists of nine questions
and is also divided into three main parts. The first part consisting of seven questions elicits students’ personal
information such as their major; which year they are in; how long they have been learning English; which level
they are at; the number of the students in their class; whether they are able to access the Internet at home; and
the requirement for the students’ English standard output. The second part is the question eight targeting at
clarifying the difficulties students currently encounter in learning at their university. The last part is the question
nine which expressed students’ expectations for some changes to improve the current teaching and learning
situation.
4. Data collection procedure
After the questionnaires were designed in English and translated into Vietnamese, their copies were
delivered to the participants. In the first place, fifteen lecturers were contacted to give detailed responses from
their experiences about the questions in the questionnaire. The venue to collect the lecturers’ ideas were the
lecturers’ common room. After that, the researcher asked these lecturers about the students’ learning schedule to
be able collect data from the learners. The author had a direct talk in Vietnamese with 100 students to inform
them clearly about the purposes and requirements of the collection of the data, the things they had to do to
complete the questionnaire. The author standed by these students to read aloud each question in the
questionnaire for the students to answer and choose the appropriate answers during the whole process of
collecting data from them. By this way, the researcher had opportunities to explain any ideas or questions in the
questionnaire at once to the students.
5. Data analysis methods
The results of the collected data from the questionnaire for the lecturer and the questionnaire for the
students were analyzed, synthesized and sorted in different themes concerning the respective aims of the study.
After that, the results were statistically presented in percentage to help the researcher compare different points
of view of the lecturers and the students on the research problems.
6. Findings from the questionnaire for the lecturers
Students
As reported by the lecturers, the great barriers they encounter is the students’ learning motivation and
English input competency. Most of the lecturers (87% and 80% respectively) stated that students’ learning
motivation is low and their English input competency is unequal. Besides, nearly two thirds of the lecturers
complained that the major English students do not put great investment in learning English although English is
considered their job oriented subject. More than one fourths of the lecturers said that the students’ input
competency is restricted, especially the students from the mountainous areas who do not have to take the
university entrance exam because they are of great priority subjects. Students’ learning facility is not a problem
for the lecturers as all the students have their own computers and Internet at home. This helps them easily
complete online homework and assignments according to the lecturers’ requirements. To sum up, it seems that
the most challenging problem the lecturers face about the students is their low motivation of learning and
unequal English input competency. These passive students acquire inappropriate leaning methods and depend
much on the lecturers instead of actively exploiting leaning documents.
In order to make students motivated to learn, 14 out of 15 lecturers making up 93% emphasized the
importance of using different motivating activities to give learning inspiration to the students. It is necessary to
organize more regular meetings with learning advisors to exchange with the students about learning methods.
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Orientation and career oriented programs are also needed to motivate students and help them acquire active
learning methods. These lecturers also added that there needs to be portfolios about the students’ learning styles
for them to follow and master the characteristics of the individual students to motivate them properly.
Furthermore, 80% of the lecturers suggested organising various extra activities for students and building English
learning communities. These activities not only promote understandings among the students but also create a
good environment for them to use and apply what they learnt at the university to the reality. These lecturers
recommended a wide variety of extra activities such as field trips, exchanges with overseas students, interviews
with native speakers, tourist guide programs in English, singing and story-telling contest in English, etc. Finally,
more than half of the lecturers accounting for 53% realized the importance of building a good rapport between
lecturers and students. This makes students feel safe and ready to share leaning experiences with the lecturers.
The same percentage of the lecturers made use of the students’ uneven English proficiency by suggesting setting
up learning groups for better students to help weak ones. According to these lecturers, this activity can help
weak students profit from dynamic learning methods and positive learning motivation of the good students.
Teaching materials
It is reported by one fifth of the lecturers that despite the updated and interesting topics, the real learning
content inside certain topics seem unsuitable and outdated. This may be the cause of more than ten percent of
the lecturers stating that teaching materials does not meet students’ interest.
When mentioning the solution to this problem, all of the lecturers suggested that the real learning
content in the materials should be constantly updated. Lecturers should also exploit and supply more interesting
materials besides the textbooks according to the demands and learning competence of each class.
Teaching and learning facilities
When presenting the difficulties about the teaching and learning facilities that the lecturers encountered
in their teaching process, more than ninety percent of them stated that the greatest problem for them was the
large-sized classes. In fact, there were more than thirty students in practical English language subjects and above
sixty students in theoretical English language subjects respectively. Moreover, four fifths of the lecturers said
that there was lack of teaching facilities and teaching aids in the classrooms. Various classes were not equipped
with computers, loudspeakers, and projectors. Certain classes were installed with computers, loudspeakers, and
projectors, yet their quality are low, so the lecturers are unable to employ them effectively. These problems
make it difficult for the lecturers to manage the class and organize learning activities such as pair work, group
work, etc. The difficulties about the teaching and learning facilities are obviously the obstacles which hinder the
quality of English teaching and learning at the university.
It cannot be denied that the role of technology in language classroom is of crucial importance. That is
why four fifths of the lecturers suggested repairing low quality computers, loudspeakers, and projectors. They
also added that it is essential to ensure that all classes should be equipped with high quality teaching facilities
and teaching aids such as computers, loudspeakers, and projectors. Besides, more than ninety percent of the
lecturers recommended reducing the number of students to twenty in each class as this will be convenient for
them to apply new teaching methods and engage students in various learning activities.
Teaching methods
In terms of applying learners’ centered approach, more than 90% of the lecturers complained that the
shy and passive learners are not aware of what they want, what they have to do, how to express their ideas and
raise questions. Therefore, discussion ad presentation activities are not really effective. The same number of the
lecturers have similar troubles with the lecturers’ centered approach as this method is reported not to enhance
the students’ creativity as these students are familiar with the learning and teaching methods in high schools.
When the lecturers deliver the lecture, they just wait to write down instead of thinking independently and
critically.
As presented in the early part, both the learner-centered approach and teacher-centered approach prove
their own shortcomings. Therefore, all the lecturers were in favour of the combination of these two approaches
and suggested that this should be applied as the most popular method. However, teaching activities should be
more learner-centered than teacher-centered so that students can make full use of their abilities and have
opportunities to express themselves. Besides, lecturers should constantly innovate teaching methods, apply
various English teaching methods and organise a wide variety of activities in classroom. Lecturers also should
resort to project-based learning method by creating many small projects for the students to participate.
Assessment system
All the lecturers stated that there is a link among teaching, learning and assessment and also confirmed
the flexibility of the assessment policies and methods. Students’ learning results are assessed through doing
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quizzes, writing assignments, making presentations and taking final tests. However, four fifths of the lecturers
thought that the final tests which check students’ rote memorization of the learnt knowledge do not really give
impetus to the students’ critical thinking and creativity. Besides, a really troublesome problem for the lecturers
is the workload of marking the assignments and portfolios for the students. This is an obsession for the lecturers
working with large classes and in charge of many classes simultaneously.
In order to minimize the drawbacks of the current assessment system, four fifths of the lecturers
suggested applying flexible assessment methods and renovating testing methods. Exam questions should
involve students’ creativity, critical thinking and problem solving skills instead of just checking students’ rote
memorization of the learnt knowledge. Final tests can be replaced by other forms of assessment such as writing
essays, writing assignments, doing projects, making portfolios or making presentations. Besides, it takes time
and efforts for the lecturers to mark a great number of essays, portfolios, projects and other kinds of
assignments. Therefore, these lectures should be financially supported to give them motivation to work more
enthusiastically.
Activities for professional development
It can be said that the lecturers had no difficulties in developing professional developments as there are
a wide range of workshops, conferences and activities for them to take part to improve their teaching practices.
Apart from this, activities for professional development are always varied and updated to meet the demand of
changing and innovation. Lecturers are also encouraged and financed to pursue higher learning courses to
improve their professional knowledge. In other words, all of the lecturers receive the positive supporting
policies from the board of school administrators for professional development activities. It is recommended that
more workshops, conferences and activities for the lecturers to exchange experiences and improve teaching
methodology continue to be organized. The lecturers should also be sent abroad for professional training at least
every two years.
7. Findings from the questionnaire for the students
English teaching and learning materials
It is reported by all of the students that the English teaching and learning materials are annually updated
with numerous interesting topics and latest content. In general, these course books satisfy students’ needs and
level. However, there exists too many theories in the course books which makes students confused. Many of
these theories are unessential, difficult to understand and there are no practical exercises to apply these theories.
Besides, these textbooks include Vietnamese culturally inappropriate topics and content. There are no parts
about Vietnamese country, people, economy, culture and society. Finally, most of the students complained
about the poor printed paper which, to a certain extent, negatively affects students’ learning interest.
The solutions given by these students is that irrelevant theories in the materials should be cut down to
give place to practical content. More practical exercises should be designed to help students understand and
apply all the previously presented theories. Moreover, the Vietnamese related socio-economic and cultural
issues in the learning and teaching materials should be constantly updated. Last but not least, better quality
paper for printing should be used to enhance the learners’ interest and motivation.
Teaching and learning facilities
As for the challenges in the teaching and learning facilities, nearly one thirds of the students complained
about the dilapidated classrooms with bad condition desks and chairs. To make it worse, there are many holes
on the walls and the fans are unscientifically installed under the lamps, which makes students really dissatisfied.
Approximately two thirds of the learners are disappointed with the stuffy and hot classrooms with few fans
which distracts them from the lessons in the hot seasons. Additionally, four fifths of the students stated that
computers and projectors in many rooms are old and of really bad quality. One more fact is that not all the
rooms are equipped with modern learning and teaching facilities such as computers and projectors. The main
teaching and learning equipment lecturers and students work with are the chalks, blackboards and cassette
players. Finally, all the classes were crowded with more than thirty students in practical English language
subjects and above sixty students in theoretical English language subjects.
These students recommended upgrading and restoring the old and dilapidated classrooms, replacing
broken desks and chairs. Besides, more fans and ventilated windows should be installed to provide students with
fresh air so that they can concentrate on study. Also, apart from chalks, blackboards and cassette players, more
sophisticated computers and projectors should be furnished in the rooms. One more thing is that the number of
students should be reduced to twenty in each class. This will make it easier for the students to participate in
various learning activities.
Teaching methods
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Most of the participants highly appreciate the lecturers’ varied and interesting activities to engage the
students’ participation in the lessons. It is also reported that the lecturers always try to apply innovation in the
class to make the lessons easy to understand and attractive to the students. The widely used method among the
lecturers is the learner-centered approach. After giving clear instructions and explaining the relevant theories,
lecturers often create opportunities for the students to work in pairs and in groups to exchange ideas and express
themselves. Apart from the positive feedbacks of most of the students, half of them complained about the
lecturers’ high requirements of the students while the young learners do not have much exposure to the real life
and practical experiences. This sometimes puts high pressure on them and they become frightened of
communicating with these lecturers. Besides, approximately one thirds of the students considered the lecturers’
fast speed of speaking a factor preventing them from profiting the knowledge and understanding the lessons.
These teacher just kept talking without caring about the learners’ learning needs and degree of taking in the
knowledge.
All of the students also express their desire about the lecturers’ creative teaching methods so that the
students are able to understand the lessons more easily and keep the knowledge in their long term memory.
Teaching methodologies should motivate and develop self -learning strategies of the students. The lecturers can
also use different motivating activities to motivate students and provide students with opportunities to practise
using English in interactive setting. Besides, lecturers should provide students with the language of classroom
discourse and small-group participation as well as offer the individual students opportunities to express
themselves and work independently. Moreover, half of the students recommended that the lecturers should
become more friendly with the students so that they can understand the students’ needs and wants as well as
their learning styles to have proper adjustment in their teaching methods. Finally, one thirds of the students give
the suggestion that the lecturers should have suitable techniques to check the students’ thorough understanding
of the lessons.
Assessment system
When the participants were asked about the challenges they encountered in the assessment system, all of
them stated that there are too many kinds of tests and group assignments in one subject, which always makes
students stressed and suffer from exam pressure. Therefore, these students’ recommendation is that testing
methods should be renovated by alleviating the number of regular tests and assignments in one subject. Besides,
most of the students reported that there was a link among teaching, learning and assessment, yet the knowledge
in the exam is often more challenging than the knowledge in the text books and there existed time constraint of
revision for exams. These students suggested that the knowledge in the exam should be closely connected with
the knowledge during the process of teaching and learning and the students should have time for better revision
for the exam. Also, assessment methods should not just be a testing device, but should evaluate the extent to
which the learning outcomes have been accomplished.
English learning environment
All the students said that English is frequently used by the tertiary lecturers of English in the class,
except for the Vietnamese compulsory general subjects. However, more than eighty percent of the learners
referred to the limited opportunities of interacting with native speakers and foreigners inside and outside the
classroom. In fact, students just work with one foreign teacher every four terms, and there are not many foreign
lecturers in the learning and teaching program. Besides, extra activities for students to exchange knowledge and
experience outside the class are restricted. This means that students suffer from lack of English practice
environment and communicative environment in English.
A wide variety of remedies are given by the students, one of which is that lecturers should maximize the
students’ exposure to English in class by adopting interactive teaching activities and increasing the students’
English talking time. Besides, exposure to English language and opportunities for interaction with the English
speakers are the essential conditions for learning English language. Therefore, various extra activities such as
field trips, summer camping for the students to expose to an English-rich environment should be organised.
Students also suggested organising more workshops and English forums for the students to exchange learning
experiences and communicate in English. These extra activities should not be coincided with the learning
schedules at the university to involve the students’ full participation. This will contribute to building English
learning communities and creating opportunities for the students to interact with native English speakers. They
emphasized that if English language learners are exposed to comprehensible English and provided with
meaningful opportunities to interact in English inside and outside the classroom, they are expected to develop
natural English language skills like native English speakers.
Learner supporting policy
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It was found out from the survey questionnaire that most of the lecturers and the learning advisors were
extremely enthusiastic with the students. They are ready to give immediate responses to the questions of the
students via emails or in the face-to-face meetings. However, the students complained about the unsatisfactory
supporting policies for the students of the staff officers of the training office and department.
In order to alleviate the above drawbacks, it is recommended that the students should be asked to
evaluate the serving attitudes of the staff officers and the quality of service of the lecturers at the end of each
learning term. The university administrators should also exercise seriously political and financial punishments for
indifferent and unenthusiastic attitudes of the staff officers and the lecturers.
8. Conclusion
The study revealed the current challenges of the teaching and learning in the major tertiary English
classrooms in ULIS, VNU. In order to tackle the challenges, it is suggested that portfolios about the students’
learning styles should be established so that the lecturers can follow and master the characteristics of the
individual students. Moreover, the real learning content in the materials should be constantly updated and
should be exploited according to the demands and learning competence of the students. In terms of the troubles
about teaching and learning facilities, more sophisticated and modern facilities such as computers and projectors
should be installed in all of the classrooms. Besides, to solve problems of the teaching and learning methods,
lecturers should also have suitable techniques to check the students’ thorough understanding of the lessons and
have proper adjustment in their teaching methods. The lecturers can also resort to varied motivation enhancing
strategies and create small projects for the students to participate to develop self -learning strategies and express
themselves confidently. Additionally, suggestion for the challenge about the assessment system is that
knowledge in the exam should be closely connected with the knowledge during the process of teaching and
learning. Exam questions should evoke students’ creativity, critical thinking and problem solving skills instead
of just checking students’ rote memorization of the learnt knowledge. Furthermore, the remedy for the challenge
about the lack of communicative environment in English with the foreigners is that lecturers should maximize
the students’ exposure to English in class by adopting interactive teaching activities and increasing the students’
English talking time. Besides, various extra activities such as field trips, summer camping for the students to
expose to an English-rich environment should be held. In order the tackle the final challenge about the teaching
and learning supporting policy, it is recommended that more workshops, conferences and activities for the
lecturers to exchange experiences and improve teaching methodology continue to be organized. Besides, the
lecturers should be sent abroad for professional training at least every two years. As for the supporting policy
for the learners, the students should be allowed to evaluate the quality of service of the lecturers and staff
officers and at the end of each learning term and this can be considered as a source of reference in annually
assessing the officers. It is hoped that all the above mentioned solutions will help teachers and students acquire
better teaching and learning environments so that students’ English profienciency will be improved to satisfy the
ouput requirements of the graduating university exam.

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3. Hasan, A.S. (1993). Methodology of teaching English. Damascus: Damascus University.
4. Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and learning in the language classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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NHỮNG THÁCH THỨC HIỆN NAY TRONG DẠY TIẾNG ANH Ở BẬC ĐẠI HỌC
Tóm tắt: Bài báo này tập trung nghiên cứu những khó khăn liên quan đến một số yếu tố mà giảng viên trường
Đại học Ngoại ngữ, Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội gặp phải khi dạy môn tiếng Anh ở bậc Đại học như tài liệu giảng
dạy, cơ sở vật chất phục vụ cho việc dạy và học, phương pháp giảng dạy, phương pháp kiểm tra đánh giá,...
Chúng tôi cũng tập trung tìm hiểu những giải pháp khắc phục những thách thức này.
Từ khóa: thách thức, bậc đại học, biện pháp, giải pháp
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