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11 - Interrogating Troubling Issues in Vietnam’s English Language Teacher Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2020

By
Hai Ha Vu  and
Phan Le Ha
Edited by
Amy Bik May Tsui
Amy Bik May Tsui
Affiliation:
The University of Hong Kong
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Summary

Over the past few decades, various external and internal challenges have increasingly required Vietnam to build up its capacity in the era of globalization by improving the English language competences of both learners and language teachers. Vietnam has responded to these challenges through a number of reforms, most recently the ambitious National Foreign Language Project (NFLP-2020). Overall, the project aims to replace the traditional approach to English language learning and teaching with a more communicative approach and to introduce international standards in English language teacher education (ELTE). Much as these attempts are necessary and effective in certain ways, this chapter argues that they might be too ambitious and counterproductive as they fail to take into account the sociocultural, economic and political contexts of Vietnam. The chapter therefore calls for a critical perspective on these current reforms of ELTE in Vietnam.

Keywords

nationalismpolitical ideologycentralization of educational managementnational foreign language project (NFLP)English language teacher competence framework (ETCF); Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)communicative language teaching (CLT)
Type
Chapter
Information
English Language Teaching and Teacher Education in East Asia
Global Challenges and Local Responses
 , pp. 217 - 234
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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