Maureen McInroy, Viet Nam
05 December 2011
Maureen McInroy writes about the challenges and the delights of teaching English to Vietnamese students in a classroom with no glass in its windows on a busy street, while on assignment for AVI.
Maureen worked between August 2007 and January 2011 at Hue University, College of Foreign Languages in Hue City, Viet Nam.
Every year students in Viet Nam celebrate Teachers Day on 20th November. In the days before, flower stalls spring up in the streets and on the day students of all ages can be seen carrying bunches of flowers and small, brightly wrapped presents for their teachers. The first year I was living in Hue, I ran out of vases and will forever treasure a book of Vietnamese Folktales in two languages, a thoughtful gift from two students.
The teachers, too, celebrate by having lunch together. Many elderly former college teachers are invited – some of them were the teachers of present teachers - and I really looked forward to meeting them again each year. Their English is so good I feel embarrassed by my beginner Vietnamese.
In my first two months of Volunteering with AVI I had learned a lot about my students. They were first year students attending Hue University College of Foreign Languages (HUCFL). Most of them came from provinces north of Hue; many were from rural areas and living away from home for the first time; many had never spoken with an English speaking person before, much less been taught by one; and most were poor. Their English grammar skills were very good and they had extensive vocabularies.
We worked in old buildings with no glass in the windows on a busy street. Given this background, I am still amazed at how cheerful, diligent and uncomplaining the students were. I often tried, and always failed, to imagine how university students and staff at home would handle such conditions.
In addition to observing and talking with my students, after eight months in Hue I moved to live in a homestay with a Vietnamese family so I had the opportunity to see things from another perspective.
It is common for three generations of a family to live in one house and for grandparents to look after the small children. As I walk around my neighbourhood I meet many grandmothers looking after their toddler grandchildren with great enthusiasm, affection and care. Each year my students did a unit on old age and from their discussions I learned a lot about the role of older people in maintaining the cultural traditions and values within the family.
Schooling is structured with five years of primary school, four years of secondary school and three years of high school. Pupils attend schools for five half days each week in primary school and six half days each week in secondary and high school. Classes are large, with numbers over 50 being quite common, and in my second assignment at HUCFL I insisted on practical classes having no more than 40 students. The curriculum is crowded with a broad range of subjects which cannot be covered during school hours. So students aiming for higher education take extra classes in the half days they are not at school, in evenings and at weekends.
Multiple-choice exams are a big feature of Confucian education systems, but from a language teacher’s perspective the weakness of these exams is that there are no tests of the basic language skills of writing, listening and speaking.
In addition to examinations, rote learning is another prominent feature of education in Viet Nam and students are not taught critical thinking, encouraged to be independent or to hold their own opinions. There are set texts used throughout the country in every subject and at every level and, with limited classroom time, these are strictly followed.
It is fair to say that the students found me a challenge as I was so unlike all their previous teachers. Their initial shyness and quite formal politeness steadily changed to increasing enthusiasm and ability, making teaching a real pleasure for me. It took us a while to find some common ground so we were constantly adapting until we found a good fit. By the middle of second semester I could hear the improvement from week to week as their fluency increased and they were better able to express ideas quickly.
After four years I have adjusted some of my views. I now think that rote learning, together with understanding, can make a huge contribution to learning the vocabulary of another language and also to remembering grammatical structures. Despite the lack of teaching of listening and speaking skills at all levels, except in foreign language schools, I consider Viet Nam to be a very successful language teaching country. Viet Nam’s need for greatest help is in experienced English language teachers who can help in the many fields where the available modern texts, whether published on paper or the internet, are available in English but not Vietnamese.
I have really loved my four years in Hue. Only the weather has tried my patience – the hot is very hot and the wet is torrential. In an Asian culture I was accorded respect on account of my age and for being a teacher, whereas at home both would render me almost invisible. The students are hard-working, smiling and a delight to teach and my colleagues are a pleasure to work with. I’d come back in a flash and do it all again.
Maureen McInroy