According to the annual report, the Ministry of Education and Training completed the development and issuance of curricula for foreign languages in the 2018 general education program.
So far, the curriculum for English has been used for Grades 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 10 in all 63 provinces and centrally-run cities of the country. In the 2022-2023 school year, children at preschools in 53 out of the 63 provinces and centrally-run cities have accessed activities to get to know English.
According to the report, 84 percent of English language teachers in primary schools, 87 percent in secondary schools and 77 percent o in high schools in Vietnam have met the requirements for foreign language competence to implement the new foreign language teaching programs.
Director of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences Le Anh Vinh said that in the past ten years, the teaching and learning of foreign languages in Vietnam have developed rapidly, especially in regions with favorable socio-economic conditions and big cities. The quality of teaching and learning has also improved, reflected in the diversified approaches of learners and teachers.
However, the teaching and learning have still faced difficulties, including a lack of teachers, qualifications of teachers, limitations in implementing teaching/learning activities and applying information technology in the teaching and learning process.
Nguyen Thi Mai Huu, Head of the National Foreign Languages Project Management Board, said that according to data from the IELTS organisation, the average test score of Vietnamese people in 2022 was 6.2/9.0, ranked 23rd out of 40 countries organising the IELTS exams, and in the same rank as the Republic of Korea, Pakistan and India.
The age of Vietnamese people taking the IELTS tests is getting younger and younger. Specifically, in 2018, more than 50 percent of IELTS test takers were over 23 years old, only nearly 1.5 percent of the test takers were 16-18 years old, and more than 13 percent were 19-22 years old. Now, in Vietnam, 62 percent of IELTS test takers are aged 16-22, and 30 percent are aged 16-18.
Vietnamese students have strengths in reading and listening skills but face difficulties with speaking as their average speaking score for the TOEFL exam is 14/30 and for the IELTS test is 5.8.
