Impressive changes in the quality of foreign language teaching and learning

On the morning of September 12, the Ministry of Education and Training held a conference to review the Project on teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system for the period 2017-2025. Permanent Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong chaired the conference.

Students' foreign language proficiency improved significantly.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Huu, Head of the Management Board of the National Foreign Language Project, said that on December 22, 2017, the Prime Minister approved the adjustment and supplementation of the Project on teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system for the period 2017-2025. On that basis, ministries, branches and localities have organized and guided their affiliated and subordinate units to implement the Project.

The Ministry of Education and Training has issued the English Familiarization Program for Preschool Children, the Pilot English General Education Program at all levels (10-year system), the General Education Program for other foreign languages, the Foreign Language Program according to the 2018 General Education Program, the Foreign Language Program for organizing teaching at regular educational institutions... contributing to promoting the unified implementation of foreign language teaching and learning nationwide.

Before 2018, activities to introduce preschool children to English had not been officially implemented; students in grades 1 and 2 had not officially learned English; the rate of students in grades 3 to 12 studying the new English program was less than 36%.

Up to now, the teaching and learning of foreign languages in the national education system has had many positive changes. 63/63 provinces and cities have implemented the English Familiarization Program for preschool children (with about 28.5% of preschool children being familiar with English). 63/63 provinces and cities have implemented the 2018 General Education Program for English (formerly the 10-year English Program) with a participation rate of 99.8% of students (100% of primary school students, 99% of secondary school students, 99% of high school students). 41/63 provinces and cities are teaching foreign languages other than English (with more than 41,489 students).

For higher education, most training institutions, including military and police schools, have determined a roadmap for applying output standards on foreign language proficiency according to the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam. Most higher education institutions have announced and applied output standards on foreign language proficiency for training programs. The expansion of advanced training programs, joint training programs with foreign countries and other programs taught in foreign languages has strongly promoted the use of foreign languages in higher education and vocational education institutions, contributing to improving foreign language proficiency for both lecturers and students.

The foreign language proficiency of students is increasingly improved. Many activities to build a learning and foreign language environment, create playgrounds, English clubs, and extracurricular English activities for students are organized, helping students practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.

The foreign language learning movement was launched by the Ministry of Education and Training, and was widely responded by localities and educational and training institutions across the country. Foreign language teachers and lecturers are always given regular attention and training in foreign language and pedagogical skills, basically meeting the requirements of innovation.

Up to now, the rate of English teachers at all levels of general education who meet the foreign language proficiency requirements to implement the foreign language program under the 2018 General Education Program has reached 88% (an increase of 22% compared to the 2017-2018 school year).

For colleges and universities under the Ministry of Education and Training, the rate of English lecturers meeting foreign language proficiency standards level 5 or higher reached 98% (an increase of 7.6% compared to the 2023-2024 school year).

The total number of lecturers currently teaching majors in foreign languages is 1,796 lecturers and the rate of lecturers achieving foreign language proficiency standards from level 4 or higher is 1,655 lecturers, equivalent to 92.2%.

After 8 years of implementation, the Project has contributed to innovating foreign language teaching in the national education system from curriculum, content and methods, forms of teaching organization, testing and evaluation in the direction of approaching the world 's updated and effective trends in foreign language teaching.

The project contributes significantly to improving foreign language proficiency to meet the research and learning needs of intellectuals, students and workers, helping human resources at the present time to be much more competitive than 10 years ago. Specifically, the number of people with national and international foreign language certificates has increased; these results are used in considering university entrance scores, studying, researching, exchanging, and participating in the domestic and foreign labor market.

Since 2017, the Ministry of Education and Training has considered recognizing the equivalent of high school graduation exam scores in Foreign Languages using foreign language proficiency assessment scores such as IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, etc. Nationwide, the number of students exempted from the Foreign Language exam increases annually: 28,620 candidates in 2021; 35,391 candidates in 2022; 46,667 candidates in 2023; 67,000 candidates in 2024.

Regarding the level of foreign language popularization for high school students, in the 2018 General Education Program, Foreign Language is a compulsory subject from grade 3 to grade 12; in addition, there is an elective Foreign Language subject (Foreign Language 1 for grades 1-2, Foreign Language 2 for grades 6-12). For students, foreign language proficiency is required according to the output standards of the training program. In general, the quality of foreign language teaching in the current national education system has achieved both breadth and depth.

Delegates attending the Conference to summarize the Project on teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system for the period 2017-2025.

It is necessary to continue to maintain and further improve the quality of foreign language teaching and learning.

Regarding the shortcomings, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Huu said that although the quality of teaching foreign languages has been improved, the ability to use foreign languages, especially English, in studying, researching, communicating, and working in an international environment is still limited. In many localities, the quality of high school graduation exams is not high, foreign language proficiency has a clear regional difference, and many students do not meet the output requirements for foreign language proficiency, so their graduation certificates are suspended.

Innovation in testing, inspection and assessment has been implemented in educational institutions, however, the graduation exam has not yet fully assessed the four skills, of which listening and speaking skills still have a low proportion. The assessment of learning outcomes has not yet shifted strongly to assessing the development of learners' capacity according to the requirements and output standards of educational and training programs.

There has been a lack of close coordination between localities and teacher training institutions to train additional English teachers to implement the 2018 General Education Program, leading to a serious shortage in some localities. Recruitment sources in particularly difficult areas are very limited, especially for preschool and primary school English teachers. On the other hand, the State has been slow to issue specific policies and mechanisms to attract English teachers in these areas.

There needs to be initiative and flexibility from localities and educational institutions in increasing resources and allocating investment funds to implement the Project. For disadvantaged areas, priority should be given to training and fostering English teachers to create local resources and long-term stability.

The awareness of many local officials and units is not uniform, and they do not consider the Project as a "push" to bring foreign language learning into a quality routine. Some localities and units have implemented the Project in an unsynchronized, unsteady, and scattered manner, without breakthrough solutions. Socialization to mobilize resources for mountainous and ethnic minority areas is still very limited, so there needs to be a support policy from the State budget for this area. There needs to be close coordination between ministries, branches, and localities in implementing the tasks of the Project in the direction of inheritance, connection, and linkage between educational and training institutions.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Huu proposed that in the coming time, it is necessary to maintain and promote the achieved results, continue to implement increasingly effective foreign language teaching and learning in the national education system. National, local and school projects and programs to implement English as a second language in schools are being developed, approved and implemented.

Along with that, strengthen the teaching of other foreign languages, especially Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Lao, and Cambodian. Inherit and promote the current Project design for related projects, programs, and programs in the next phase. Strengthen the work of directing, operating, managing, evaluating, inspecting, and supervising the implementation of project activities, programs, and projects...

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/chuyen-bien-an-tuong-ve-chat-luong-day-va-hoc-ngoai-ngu-post748119.html