Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen

Primary English language education policy in Vietnam: insights from implementation

The introduction of English in primary education curricula is a phenomenon occurring in many non-English-speaking countries in Asia, including Vietnam. Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in Vietnam issued guidelines for the piloting of an English as a foreign language (EFL) primary curriculum in which English is taught as a compulsory subject from Grade 3; however, there is limited research on the practices required to successfully implement this policy. This paper reports on a study that looked at the implementation of the primary English language policy in terms of the policy goals in two primary schools, one private and the other public, in Hanoi to shed light on the practice of EFL teaching at the primary level in Vietnam. The research was conducted as an exploratory case study with data collected from multiple sources, including classroom observations and interviews with different stakeholders. The results revealed variation in the implementation of primary English education between the two schools, with the private school providing better outcomes. The language planning issues discussed in this study, including teacher supply, training and professional development, resourcing, teaching methods, and materials, have been raised in previous educational research in Vietnam. However, despite being a new start to primary English, the 2010 programme seems to have done little to improve policy implementation in these areas, hindering the effectiveness of teaching English in schools. This study suggests a number of ways the current situation might be improved.

The impacts of globalisation on EFL teacher education through English as a medium of instruction: an example from Vietnam

Recent research on language planning and policy highlights the effects of globalisation in spreading the English language as a medium of instruction (EMI) in non-native English speaking (NNES) countries. This trend has encouraged many universities in NNES countries to offer EMI education programmes with the objective of developing national human capital with proficiency in English. One such country is Vietnam, where the Ministry of Education and Training prepared a 2008–2020 action plan to revitalise English language education, involving the improvement of the quality of language teacher education (TE). As part of the current reforms, the Ministry has urged teacher training colleges and universities to develop high quality English as a foreign language (EFL) TE programmes. In response, a fast-track EFL TE programme with EMI has been introduced at a Vietnamese university. Focusing on this TE programme, this paper illustrates how contemporary globalisation encourages using EMI in TE in NNES countries. Vygotskian socio-cultural theory and Marginson and Rhoadess [Beyond national states, markets, and systems of higher education: A glonacal agency heuristic. Higher Education, 43(3), 281–309] glonacal heuristic are used to analyse the effects of globalisation in this EMI teaching context. Based on individual interviews of a cohort of 20 Vietnamese pre-service teachers, classroom observations and artefacts, such as instructional materials and policy documents, the paper shows that global influences on teaching practices were mediated by a number of different elements, including social and community pressure, trends to the internationalisation of education, and the availability of teaching resources.

Teachers’ agency and the enactment of educational reform in Vietnam

Scholars concerned with language policies (LPs) argue that globalization has brought about various political, socio-economic, and linguistic shifts that increasingly impact on teacher agency (e.g., Zhao & Baldauf, 2012). Recently, the LP literature has increasingly acknowledged the agentive role of teachers as a critical factor in implementing policy (Liddicoat & Baldauf, 2008). These and other scholars argue that teachers have the potential to exercise their transformative roles in implementing and responding to the LP changes (Menken & Garcia, 2010). However, agency has remained under-examined (Hamid, Nguyen, & Baldauf, 2013; Ramanathan & Morgan, 2007; Zhao & Baldauf, 2012) especially in developing settings like Vietnam. In the context of national English language education policy reforms in Vietnam, the need to explore teacher agency in response to the reforms to better understand the policy implementation process at the local level is critical. Using Fullans (1993) theory on change agency, this paper examines how a group of English teachers in a remote mountainous area in Vietnam interpret, interrogate, and appropriate the current English LP. Data were collected from interviews and classroom observation of the teachers to shed light on their visions and practices in responding to the reform policy. The findings indicate that teachers are highly capable of exercising their agency as comprehensive policy implementers. They do so by resisting the poorly regulated English LPs and working towards meaningful pedagogical transformations. The study thus emphasizes the urgent need for a comprehensive understanding of teachers’ agency in LP decision-making and implementation. It also makes a contribution to explicitly theorizing the concept of teacher agency from the perspective of Fullans theory on change agency. Lastly, the study considers implications for teachers, policy-makers, and school leaders to support the active roles of the teachers in reform implementation.

Standardizing English for Educational and Socio-economic Betterment- A Critical Analysis of English Language Policy Reforms in Vietnam

The chapter provides a critical assessment on the reality of current teacher quality and the roles of the ELPs in advancing linguistic, education and socio-economic developments for various students, especially those from minority linguistic backgrounds in a remote province. The results reveal the probably unpromising outcomes and tremendous challenges of the present ELPs as teacher professional development in the current ELP reform is, for the most part, controversial, ambivalent, and contested. Furthermore, the chapter argues that, contrary to the state’s goal of promoting English for socio-economic and educational advancement, these language policies could largely threaten social, educational and economic development, and minority students’ linguistic and cultural ecology. The chapter thus emphasizes the urgent need for a comprehensive understanding of the interconnectedness among effective teacher professional development; cultural and linguistic complexity; language/literacy education; and socio-economic needs throughout the processes of language policy decision-making and implementation. To the end, the chapter strongly recommends respecting home languages and multilingualism for effective schooling, transparent and transformative education, a strong economy, social welfare, and social security at local and global scales.

Medium of instruction in Africa: commentary

This special issue on the medium of instruction (MOI) in Africa is a sequel to a previous issue on the same topic on Asia published last year in this journal (vol. 14, no. 1). While we are aware that language boundaries do not correspond to political boundaries – either national or continental – we have been guided by our assumptions that the MOI situations were somewhat different in these two continents and therefore two separate issues would allow more in-depth exploration of these issues. In this introductory piece, we comment on the issues emerging from the African papers which are related to the issues highlighted in the Asian papers. Over the past decades, MOI policy has shifted dramatically in educational systems in Africa. At independence, African countries faced the questions of whether (i) to retain ex-colonial languages (French, English, Portuguese, and Spanish) as the sole MOI in public schools, (ii) replace them with the indigenous languages as MOI, or (iii) use both indigenous languages and ex-colonial languages an MOI. Some countries moved away from using the former colonial language as the sole MOI (e.g. French in Guinea and Burkina Faso), combining it with local languages, while others chose to move toward greater use of the ex-colonial language (e.g. Portuguese in Mozambique). This makes the MOI policy implementation in a number of African countries more complicated. This special issue comprises six contributions addressing issues in MOI implementation in a number of African polities. Trudell and Piper in their paper discuss the complexity of MOI implementation in Kenyan schools, providing a deeper understanding of language policy actors and their agency in the micro context. The study shows that language practices in Kenyan schools, as elsewhere in Africa, tend to prioritize the use of English as MOI at the expense of students’ first languages. These practices are seen as responsible for educational failure, including high school dropouts and students’ inability to read in both the mother tongue and English (e.g. Brock-Utne, 2001; Hornberger, 2002). It is noted that the demand for English as MOI is orchestrated by local stakeholders, and that the Kenyan national language policy mandating the use of the language of the catchment area in Grades 1–3 is being ignored. In a related paper, Jones uses an ethnographic approach to explore teachers’ perceptions of MOI policy implementation in Kenya, with a focus on a predominantly Sabaot primary school in the west of the country. She found that teacher classroom language practices in this context did not conform to the national MOI policy, which requires that the area language, in this case Sabaot, be used as MOI in early grades. This study also attests to the role of teachers’ agency in policy practice in local contexts. Pearson in her paper addresses MOI policy implementation in the neighboring country of Rwanda, which in 2008 replaced French with English as MOI in the schools. Using an innovative approach to explore language policy in practice, Pearson highlights some of the difficulties, due in large part to inadequate planning, in implementing the policy. Subsequently, Rwanda revised its MOI policy in 2011, suggesting that the previous policy, a

Tribute to Richard (Dick) Birge Baldauf Jr. (1943–2014): A distinguished scholar and an inspiring mentor

Students and colleagues alike were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Richard (Dick) Birge Baldauf Jr. on 4th June 2014 at the age of 71. We have lost a warm friend, a leading scholar and an inspiring mentor in the field of Applied Linguistics and TESOL education. Dick was Executive Editor of Current Issues in Language Planning, and Co-convenor of the 14 Congress of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA) held in August 2014 in Brisbane, Australia. Dick ceased his work on these endeavours very shortly before his death, which has caused us to feel his loss all the more keenly. As a group of Dick’s former students, we have collaborated to write this tribute in memory of a supervisor we loved dearly. We will remember him as an academic role model, a dedicated teacher, a passionate scholar, a constant and supportive mentor and, above all, a person who was full of warmth and humanity. As his former students we feel this loss particularly deeply; Dick did not stop mentoring us when we completed our doctorates and we turned to him frequently for advice and guidance. Dick was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1943, the oldest of three children. He graduated inHistory and Political Science fromDickinsonCollege, Pennsylvania in 1965.Hewent on to the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, where he earned aMaster’s degree in Education in 1970 and a PhD in Educational Psychology in 1975. He later completed a Graduate Diploma in Language Studies from theWestern Australian College of Advanced Education, in, Perth. Dick served as a Peace Corps Primary ESL teacher in Sabah, Malaysia from 1966 to 1968. It was here that he met his wife, Christina (Tina). Tina, who taught English and Indonesian, shared Dicks interest in language and often accompanied him on the conference circuit. They had a daughter, Pamela, and recently Dick and Tina were delighted to welcome the arrival of granddaughter, Sophie. Between 1972 and 1975 Dick was Supervisor of Educational Testing in American Samoa. In 1975Dick and Tina moved to Australia when he took up a position at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, where he worked until 1992, serving as Head of the School of Language and Arts Studies in Education.

Pre-Service Teachers' Construction of Professional Identity through Peer Collaboration during Professional Experience: A Case Study in Australia.

Abstract Much research in the area of pre-service teacher (PST) identity formation has focused on the mentoring relationship between PSTs and their supervising teachers. While this is important to identity formation, interaction with peers is another area that needs to be examined. Using Wenger’s matrix as a theoretical framework, this study aimed to explore how PSTs’ identities are formed during the process of paired placement during the professional experience. Two pairs of PSTs were followed during the four-week professional experience. Data were collected from interviews with the PSTs before, during and after the professional experience. It is clear from this case study that the identity formation of PSTs is enhanced during a paired placement on their first professional experience. This finding has implications for teacher educators who are seeking evidence of the effectiveness of paired placements on the identity formation of PSTs during professional experience.

Boundary Objects and Brokers in Professional Experience: An Activity Theory Analysis

Professional experience (PE) is a key element in the preparation of future teachers. However, a growing number of researchers have raised concerns about the need to enhance the effectiveness of the professional experience in teacher education programs and have called for innovations that will enhance the current school-based experiences within these programs. In response to this call, there have been many innovations which have been implemented worldwide. Most of the innovations place emphasis on bridging the gap between theory and practice by enhancing the quality of school-based experiences, including the one we describe in this chapter. Within the scope of this chapter, we report the findings of a case study that explored the learning experiences of preservice teachers through professional experience. The focus of this chapter is to examine the boundary objects and brokers that assisted the preservice teachers’ boundary crossing between the university and school context. The innovation in this chapter is the novel use of activity theory to examine preservice teacher learning in professional experience.

Using the Instructional Core to Implement a Professional Learning Programme for Primary Science Teachers in Australia: Teacher Learning and Student Skill Outcomes.

There has been a call for effective professional learning to improve the quality of the science teaching of primary teachers in Australia. It seems from the literature that teaching science effectively is a challenging endeavour for primary teachers. Professional learning based on the instructional core framework is an emerging approach that has been utilised sparingly in teacher professional learning in Australia. This paper reports on a case study that investigated the outcomes of one instance of a professional learning programme for primary science teachers based on the instructional core. Using a case study methodology, the current study collected data from multiple sources, including video-taped lesson observations, teacher interviews, field notes and transcripts of the teacher learning sessions. The study shows a number of positive outcomes with reference to the three areas of the instructional core framework: content, pedagogy and student skill outcomes. The findings of the paper are especially relevant to teacher educators, coaches and mentors who are interested in professional learning approaches that achieve positive outcomes in student learning.