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In 2008 Vietnam issued Government Decision 1400, the goal of which is:
To renovate thoroughly the tasks of teaching and learning foreign languages
within the national educational system.
MoETs National Foreign Language 2020 Project, or Project 2020 for short, was
created in 2010 to implement this national renovation.
Among the objectives of the project is establishing regional foreign language
centers as a major strategy to address teacher development and language
teaching quality throughout the country.
Five such facilities were officially launched in January this year at the
University of Languages and International Studies/VNU Hanoi, Thai Nguyen
University, Hue University College of Foreign Languages, the University of
Foreign Languages Da Nang City, and the Ho Chi Minh City University of
Education. In this study, I mention opportunities and challenges in the
implementing of the National Project 2020 in Thainguyen University of
Industry, and I would like to suggest some changes that are needed for the
achievement of the Project goals.
Thainguyen University of Technology (TNUT) and Project 2020
TNUT has various courses such as mechanical engineering, electrical
engineering, electronics, economics.. and has attracted many students from
many cities, towns and provinces all over the country, particularly those from
the mountainous areas. English is a compulsory subject at TNUT and this
subject is taught 6 classes per week. Thanks to the National Foreign Languages
Project, the university was invested with two language labs, each of which is
equipped with 30 desktops with access to the internet.
Students who have studied English for seven years beginning in grade six are
often not able to use English beyond simple greetings and questions such as
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hello, good-bye, and whats your name? says Dr. Diana L. Dudzik, a
senior fellow at an education ministry project on foreign language improvement.
Many have attributed myriad reasons to this problem, but everything seems to
boil down to unqualified teachers and an outdated testing model. 20 teachers sat
for a test prepared last year by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET),
which used guidelines from the Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages to check their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.
MoET demands that university lecturers of English reach the frameworks
second-highest skill level (C1), while elementary school teachers must achieve
the fourth-highest level (B1) and middle school educators the third-highest
(B2).The shocking result of the test was that only 40 percent of the test-takers
met the requirement from MoET. Although the result had been sent to each
teacher through close envelopes, the rector did not have to wait more than one
day to be informed of the final result. This is one of the challenges that the
Project has to face. Teachers failing to meet to overall criteria would somehow
feel they are not deserved with the jobs they have been doing.


HauI trains many fields, such as accounting, electronics, English,
electrical engineering, and this university attracts many students from many
cities, towns and provinces all over the country. English is a compulsory subject
at HauI and this subject is taught 9 classes per week. HauI invests much modern
equipment to serve teaching and learning English. HauI attaches special
importance to English teachers quality and students quality in learning
English. When students learn at HauI, many of them can speak English well
because they have learnt English when they are very young, but many students
have never learnt English before because they come from poor provinces and
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poor towns. Therefore, improving quality of teaching and learning are very
important. In previous English classes at Haui, classrooms as unique social
environments. The way language is used in the classroom is distinct from the
discourse in other social practices (Kathleen Graves, 2008:166). Moreover, real
communities beyond the classroom (Kathleen Graves, 2008:169) because in the
classrooms, teachers teach grammar, structures but do not numerously pay
attention to teaching communication. Therefore, students cannot use English to
communicate after graduating from university and they cannot find a good job.
According Kathleen Graves, teachers should teach English by virtual
communities through personal and group blogs and videos. They can
communicate with each other in a virtual forum, they can use information
technology to enhance their English. But in HauI, many teachers do not teach
English by this way and as a result, when National Project 2020 is carried out,
HauI is one of the first universities implements Project 2020 and achieves
satisfactory results. The first advantage is that all of teachers have better
working condition to teach English: they have computers, projectors, speakers
and students have better learning condition. The next advantage is that teachers
also have condition to exchange and learn experiences with each other. There
are 79 English teachers at HauI tested in National Project 2020 and there are 75
English teachers achieved the goal, only 4 English teachers do not achieve and
they are cultivating their knowledge to better themselves. Students achieved
higher result in the exams and they some of them can be confident to
communicate with each other.
Besides advantages of National Project 2020, there are some
disadvantages. English teachers at HauI are good teachers and they have many
years in teaching English. But some of them cannot pass the test C1, therefore
they find disappointed and all of teachers are worried because C1 certificate has
time-limit 2 years. Teachers are very busy because they have many things to do,
such as preparing lessons, preparing tests, giving marks, taking care of their
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family, For this reason, many teachers cannot prepared carefully for the
examination, so they are failed this test. Furthermore, many students are not
conscious of importance of English, so they are not interested in learning
English. Therefore, teachers seem very tired and bored when they teach those
students. Teachers cannot make them interested in English because of their
attitude toward English. Project 2020 make students more tired because they do
not like learning English but they have to learn much.
Important goal of learning English not only communicate but also
integrate into the world. Therefore, English teachers must be standard, but it is
very difficult for everyone to carry out. I would like to give some solutions to
achieve of the Project goal. Firstly, teaching universities and colleges must train
English standard teachers. When our country has line-up of English standard
teachers, learning will improve. Secondly, the government has to speed up
socialization, attract contribution of entire society to attend to teaching and
learning English. Moreover, should establish high-quality English centers, these
centers should have a low fee to draw everybody, so everybody can learn
English. Leaders of universities, schools should pay attention to working and
learning condition and create condition for each English teacher can travel
abroad to learn experiences. Finally, the government should pay appropriately
for English teachers to their effort. Thus, they can wholeheartedly contribute to
educational career. I hope Project 2020 will promote its effect and all of teachers
can be English standard teachers and all of students can communicate in
English.





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