Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thi Nghia, at a recent workshop on teaching English to preschool children, said that up to aged six is the ‘golden development period’ in people’s lives, and that children should start learning foreign languages as soon as possible.

However, Nghia admitted that Vietnamese children are meeting difficulties in learning English because of the unreasonable curricula. 

Under the national education program, primary school students began learning English when they enter third grade. This means that if they learn English at preschools, they would have three years of interruption.

Dr. Dang Loc Tho, Rector of the Central Pedagogical Junior College, citing research works, pointed out that picking up languages is a natural process at a young age. The time at preschool is believed to be the most suitable period for people to begin learning English.

Tho said French and Canadian scientists have found that 7-month-old children can learn and understand two languages at the same time even if the grammar structures of the two languages are different.

The Central Pedagogical Junior College has tried to teach English to children at three preschools and found that children were excited and actively participated in English lessons.

However, according to Nguyen Quoc Hung, a renowned teacher of English, and former vice president of the Hanoi University, many parents have complained that their children still cannot speak English after one year of learning English. 

Hung believes that the problem are improper or inappropriate teaching methods.

A survey conducted by the Central Pedagogical Junior College of 50 preschools, 80 headmasters and 330 teachers found that only 10 percent of preschools organized English lessons themselves, while 90 percent hire foreign language centers to teach English to children.

Meanwhile, Le Thi Luan from the Vietnam Education Science Institute pointed out that most of the teachers from foreign language centers hired by preschools do not have pedagogy certificates.

The figures showed that the teaching of English at preschools has been implemented in an unorganised way. “Every school teaches English its way,” Hung commented.

He believes that it would be better not to teach English at preschools until a standard curricula is created.

“The teaching will depend on the curriculum and teachers’ qualifications,” he noted.

NLD