A Course Summary of “Interaction with Children in English in Vietnamese Context”

A Teacher Development Course in English Interaction with Children in Vietnamese Context (EVC) organized by Creative Language Center (CLC) of Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU) was completed on July 26, 2019.

The course was 5 weeks in length from June 28 to July 26 with the participation of 79 (seventy nine) English teachers from elementary, middle and high schools of provinces from Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Đắk Nông, Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu, Hậu Giang, Đồng Tháp and Sóc Trăng.

Unlike the first day of the opening ceremony, the atmosphere of the closing ceremony showed that the students' competence in teaching and communicating English has been improved significantly. They are shown in light of the students’ reflection in using English, better pronunciation, more confidence in proactive communication, more professional presentations, more effective teamwork, and especially the ability to create games in conjunction with teaching English to students in real contexts.

The course is delivered by Mr. Thông Q. Đặng, Lecturer of Faculty of Applied Linguistics, University of Houston (USA), in collaboration with CLC’s Vietnamese and native-English teachers and some volunteers. 

“I would like to help all Vietnamese students, especially those in remote provinces who cannot afford to study and use English everyday. However, due to age and distance issues, I could not go to each province to deliver my courses. Fortunately, I was able to deliver this program at TDTU to help guide the teachers in the province and then they will be the instructors for their colleagues and deliver the direct training to them daily. My goal is to create a community of dedicated people in teaching English to students, especially young students in some provinces, then this community will gradually spread throughout Vietnam. The community will be responsible for communicating, training English for children, as well as supporting other tasks if possible; and from this, children from all over Vietnam will have the opportunity to learn and use English," said Mr. Thong Dang after the course.

Talking about the content of the EVC course, Mr. Thong Dang emphasized that "in addition to professional skills, students also learn a lot of new knowledge, especially the dictionary of 1,200 daily English sentences for everyday use in Vietnamese contexts". This dictionary contains English terms used to describe events, contexts and actions that are unique in Vietnam. This is a passionate project that Mr. Thong Dang and his colleagues have edited for 3 years and now transferred to TDTU.

In recent years, TDTU has always been having special support policies for the educational sector in provinces, especially for those in comprehensive cooperation agreements with TDTU. In this course, TDTU has funded training programs and arranged accommodation for all participating teachers. At the closing ceremony, all students made deep thanks and paid tribute to the TDTU Presidential Board, center's staffs as well as volunteers. All students want to continue to receive meaningful, practical and professional support programs such as EVC courses at TDTU in the future.

Some photos of the closing ceremony: