The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) in cooperation with the UK’s international educational organization British Council has launched a website with resources for local high school teachers.
The website www.teachingenglish.edu.vn links to a large selection of reference resources and English textbooks approved by MoET for grades 10, 11 and 12.
“The site is a very useful source of materials for both teachers and learners of English in Vietnam… implementing the strategy ‘Foreign languages teaching and learning in the national education system – period 2008-2020,’” Nguyen Vinh Hien, vice minister of MoET, said at the launch in HCMC last week.
The website provides teachers with useful teaching resources, techniques and methodologies, which have been consulted by Vietnamese and British specialists.
By logging on teachers can select an interactive activity to supplement their lessons. Guidelines for using the activities are in both English and Vietnamese, and there are also low-tech options for classrooms without a computer.
Teachers can find tips on dealing with a range of everyday problems such as correcting errors and managing large classes. There is also a section on professional development and opportunities to become part of a global network of teachers via the online forum. The website contents will be extended to elementary school teachers in the 2011 academic year.
The website is part of the British Council’s four-year project, Access English.
Access English aims to support changes in English language teaching for policy makers, educators and teachers. It has researched primary English language teaching in Vietnam, supported MoET and the national textbook writing team to develop new materials and curriculums, and has supported Danang University and Hanoi Junior Teacher Training College to design training courses for primary school English language teachers. The project has also worked with the National Institute for Educational Sciences to develop a new primary school English curriculum that is being piloted at 92 elementary schools across the country this academic year
The British Council is also working with MoET and several higher education institutes in Hanoi, Danang and HCMC to run a course called Primary Innovations, to train workshop facilitators.
The UK’s international educational organization is also coaching a group of trainers from Vietnam’s English Teacher and Training Network to train secondary school English teachers in eleven provinces throughout the country. At Friday’s launch, MoET and the British Council announced a competition to design a lesson plan or video a lesson using the resources on the website. The winners will fly to the U.K to study English or Singapore to attend the Regional Language Center conference.
