Hoang Anh Tu, a writer, who attended a recent workshop on AI (artificial intelligence) in teaching English in Vietnam held recently said as a parent, he finds Vietnamese parents difficult to please. Sending their children to foreign language centers, they want them to both communicate well in English and be good at grammar so that they can get high scores at school.

Most foreign language centers in Vietnam follow foreign curricula with focus on practicing speaking and listening skills, and have to open classes specializing in grammar lessons to help learners get high scores at school.

Tu believes that if parents continue to run after these goals, Vietnam won’t be able to use English as a second language.

Le Van Canh, former lecturer of the University of Foreign Languages under Hanoi National University, commented that parents put high expectations on their children, especially on their English skills.

This comes from the fact that in recent years, many universities and general schools, including ones which don’t use English in teaching, tend to enroll students based on their IELTS scores. Therefore, parents rush to send their children to IELTS preparation classes despite sky high tuition.

The ‘IELTS rush’ has led to parents misunderstanding that high IELTS scorers are talented students.

“This is quite wrong. High IELTS scores don’t mean fluent English skills,” he said.

Students may obtain a high score with an IELTS essay, but the score just partially shows their abilities. In many cases, high scorers face difficulties in communications, or cannot write an essay in a convincing way.

Canh said that being good at English alone is not enough for people to prepare for their future. 

“English nowadays just serves as a vehicle that brings Vietnamese people to the world. Besides English skills, young people need to have deep knowledge in many fields and practice many other skills,” he said.

He said that parents now overvalue the role of English and many believe their children just need to study English well to become outstanding persons in society.

While affirming the importance of English, he said it would be better for parents to understand how important language skills are. In the 4.0 era, language tools such as AI are developing rapidly and can effectively support people when they travel abroad. In other words, people can communicate with foreigners when visiting foreign countries, thanks to support software.

Therefore, he believes that it’d be better to rethink if it is necessary to spend all time on English and run a race to study English for IELTS certificates, and if IELTS achievements can ensure success for children in the future.

There has been no official study about the consequences of the IELTS rush but it is clear that by following the crowd, parents are wasting their money, while children are bearing unnecessary pressure, he said.

A high school teacher of English in Hanoi commented on his Facebook that English classes are all overcrowded and secondary school students are also learners in the classes.

He believes that in addition to English skills, people need many other skills to exist in society and master their lives.

In related news, Vietnamese students’ IELTS rankings have decreased. The average score on the Academic test of Vietnamese examinees was 6.2 out of 9.0 this year, ranking 29th out of 39 countries, down six places compared to 2022.

In 2023-2024, the average scores of Vietnamese were 6.3 in listening, 6.4 in reading, 6.0 in writing and 5.7 in speaking. Vietnamese rankings in listening and speaking are below the average levels in the world (6.6 and 6.3, respectively), while the scores are the same in the two other skills.

A 6.0 is the score gained by Vietnamese examinees (21 percent), while 5.5 and 6.5 accounted for 18 percent. Only 5 percent of examinees got 8.0 or higher.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam is below Malaysia (7.1), the Philippines (6.8), Indonesia (6.7) and Myanmar (6.6).

In Vietnam, more than 100 universities and education establishments accept IELTS certificates for English test results.

Thuy Nga