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In 1974 the Ministry for Higher Education stated that every scientist in Vietnam must know one or two foreign languages (one of them being English), and be able to use it for his work. But even now, the number of people who have acquired the language as required is still small. This paper examines the causes of this problem and possible remedies. What has caused the situation to change so slowly? The reasons may be several, but the most striking one is that teachers do not understand the nature of EST, so they try to teach scientists the same language forms in the same way as they do with young students at Foreign Language Colleges. Consequently, the learners know a lot about the language, but can use only a little. The paper considers several aspects of the situation. Scientists and technologists need to learn only the language forms often used in scientific literature and the skills needed for their work. For this reason, teachers must first identify the learners' needs, then draw up a list of objectives of the course, look for relevant materials and use appropriate methods of teaching. To help teachers to do these things, a training programme is needed. The training will familiarize the teachers with key scientific concepts, characteristics of EST, and the way to place learners in appropriate groups. Several approaches to ESP/EST are examined, but EST learners in Vietnam are rather different from those in other countries, so a special model for an EST course is designed ; an example of a reading course to illustrate the model is given for teachers to refer to. Finally, some suggestions are offered to solve problems arising from present EST courses.

The significance of the use of the short story in language teaching and the effective approaches that help to realise this significance are the two major concerns of this field study. The whole study consists of two parts : theoretical justification and practical application, with more emphasis on the second part. It starts with a brief discussion on the inseparable connection between language learning and literature (Chapter 1), followed by a close examination at the specialities and potentialities short stories can offer to language teaching (Chapter 2), which leads to a detailed discussion (accompanied by an exemplified demonstration through sample lessons) of the actual use of short stories in an EFL class (Chapters 3, 4, and 5). The practical value of the study lies in two aspects : it brings about, by analysing its substances, the awareness of the value of the short story in language teaching; and it opens to us, by presenting detailed and concrete examples, varied and practical approaches to the effective use of the short story in EFL environment.

The language laboratory has been used in china for foreign language teaching for many years. Unfortunately, not all the language laboratories have been fully utilised and well administered. It is therefore essential for Chinese EFL teachers to become aware of the existing problems and explore avenues for improving the use of the language laboratory. This study aims to identify and to analyse the problems involving materials, methodology and administration in the use of the language laboratory and to discuss possible ways of solving or, at least, reducing these problems. The language laboratory itself is only a mechanical teaching aid. Language laboratory materials, teaching methods and the administration of the language laboratory are fundamental parameters which determine the effective use of the language laboratory. In this study, a review on the different theories and recent developments of language laboratory usage are examined. This is followed by a description of the problem areas in the use of the language laboratory in China. A survey on language laboratory use in Australia is offered as a model for comparison. Finally, implications are put forward and suggestions are made to Chinese EFL teachers in the hope that this may lead to more effective and efficient use of language laboratories in the future.

Pronunciation is an important component of English teaching, particularly in a non-English speaking country like China, where students' exposure to the target language may be only listening to tapes or to the teacher in class, or occasionally watching a film in English, if these audio-visual facilities are available. However, the majority of teachers do not pay enough attention to pronunciation because it always competes for class times with other aspects of language teaching. Moreover, it is not usually tested. As a result, after several years of studying English, some students still cannot speak or read aloud with any degree of accuracy or fluency. Therefore it is essential that in China, the teacher's professional inventory should include acquaintance with basic articulatory phonetics and the phonological system of English, because the teacher is inevitably a pronunciation model for the student. Furthermore, the correction of students' aberrant pronunciation is a continuing task throughout years of teaching at different levels, and one which requires patience and alertness as well as effective techniques. With the rapid development of education in China, the problem of effective teaching of pronunciation has become more prominent. According to the government's plan, the number of students planned to be enrolled in tertiary institutions alone will increase by 42.2 per cent from 1981 to 1985. Foreign language teaching, in theory, starts from the third year of primary school and continues right through the second year of college. The training of teachers at these levels, especially at the primary and secondary levels, is a serious problem. Pronunciation is an inescapable part of language teaching. The questions raised in this paper and the suggestions made may, in part, assist with the training of the large numbers of effective speakers of foreign languages that China needs.

English has been taught in Vietnam for about forty years and the number of English learners increases every year. Whatever the course of teaching English may be, the teaching of pronunciation is always a beginning part of it. The materials used in teaching pronunciation vary from schools to colleges, but the way of teaching is always the same. It means that students have to imitate what the teachers have pronounced with a very simple explanation of how to pronounce it. This causes great problems, because not all teachers have correct pronunciation and not all students can imitate the teachers in the right way. At the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, students are trained to be teachers of English. They not only need to have correct pronunciation, but also need to know how to pronounce sounds. In order to teach pronunciation effectively, they need to have a certain knowledge of phonetics and know the difference and similarity between the sound systems of English and Vietnamese. To help awareness of the necessity of good pronunciation and the present problems associated with teaching it, this report: a/ points out the importance of teaching English pronunciation in teaching English; b/ gives an overview of English teaching in general and the teaching of pronunciation in particular. To improve the teaching of pronunciation at the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, this report: c/ makes a comparison between sound systems of English and Vietnamese; d/ proposes material for the teaching of pronunciation for the Vietnamese students of the Hanoi Foreign Languages College, bearing in mind the context of the Vietnamese teaching and learning situation. It is hoped that this report will be of practical use: for teachers and students in the Hanoi Foreign Languages College.

There are increasing needs for trained business persons as a result of the recent rapid development of foreign trade in Vietnam. A good command of written commercial English is one of the most important qualifications of a business person. At present the Hanoi Foreign Trade College is the only institution which is responsible for training commerce students. The teaching of writing skill in general and the teaching of commercial letter writing in particular still leave much to be desired. The writing skill of graduates of the Hanoi Foreign Trade College is far from satisfactory This Field Study Report aims at identifying the difficulties and the needs of commerce students in the Hanoi Foreign Trade College. It takes into consideration the language and learning needs of the target students in order to suggest a syllabus for the teaching of commercial letter writing to commerce students more efficiently. The Field Study Report consists of seven chapters. Chapter I provides an analysis of the teaching and learning situations at the Hanoi Foreign Trade College and problems of the teaching of commercial letter writing. Chapter 2 looks at some major theoretical problems and practical issues for Specific Purpose English syllabus design and material production for the teaching of commercial letter writing to commerce students at the Hanoi Foreign Trade College. Chapter 3 is a contrastive analysis of western commercial letters, Vietnamese commercial letters in Vietnamese and Vietnamese commercial letters in English. Chapter 4 is an analysis of the results of a survey made in 1988 to identify the needs of commerce students for commercial letters. Chapter 5 is mainly concerned with designing a communicative syllabus for the teaching of commercial letter writing to commerce students in Vietnam. Chapter 6 is the proposed syllabus for the teaching of CLW to commerce students at the HFTC, Vietnam. Chapter 7 is the conclusion. This Field Study Report should be regarded as an exploratory attempt to adopt the communicative approach in designing a syllabus for the teaching of commercial letter writing to commerce students in Vietnam.

This study, within the framework of improving the English course for postgraduate level at IPB (Bogor Institute of Agriculture), attempts to determine the extent of English reading activities for academic purposes expected by agricultural teaching staff at post graduate level, different expectations across the study programs or a particular area of specialised discipline, the extent of English problems experienced by postgraduate students and the strategies used to cope with English needs in their postgraduate studies, to test a hypothesis that there is a positive correlation between the students' command/scores of English and their achievements/scores in agricultural subjects. Questionnaires for agricultural staff and students were adapted from Hughes (1988) and Weir (1988) to address these questions. Students' academic records were obtained to compute the correlation between scores in English and agricultural subjects. Review of literature and research in current theories of reading in EFL is given to serve as a theoretical foundation to discuss English reading lessons from secondary level to tertiary level in Indonesia and to provide general implications to improve the English course at IPB. The results indicate that staff reading expectation in English is high in comparison to the students' level of English and in that all eight types of reading activities listed in the questionnaires were expected. There are some different expectations across the study programs. However, the most relevant finding to note in regard to the the English course is that reading English texts as review of literature for research proposes and reading English texts for writing assignments were expected across all the study programs. It is also found that reading English texts for academic purposes was still a problem for the majority of student respondents and there are various interesting reading strategies used by the student to cope with the English needs of their studies. However, further investigation is essential to assist the students with reading problems since the results do not specify the nature of reading problems and methods used by the respondents. A significant correlation is found between scores in English and agricultural subjects at the level of 5% and 1% by the Spearman rank- order and the Pearson product-moment correlation formulas. This implies that English is central to the students' success in their postgraduate studies, which is also supported by the student respondents' opinions. General implications and suggestions are provided to assist postgraduate with reading problems and to improve the English course for the students.

This study deals with reading problems faced by the advanced level students in the Institute of International Relations (I.I.R.) in Hanoi. It seeks to identify ways in which the teachers there can help their students to read authentic texts in English with a high level of comprehension. The study begins with a description of the training of the young diplomats and researchers. It considers the problems faced by the teachers and students, and looks into the role of English in general and English reading comprehension in particular in the I.I.R. Bearing in mind the objectives of the training, the study discusses the goals for teaching reading comprehension at an advanced level and lays emphasis on the importance of using appropriate techniques for teaching reading skills at this level. The writer of the study also looks at the relevant issues in theories of reading comprehension which are discussed in current literature. These theoretical issues are then related to the reality of teaching in the I.I.R. Finally, to illustrate all the techniques and skills for teaching reading comprehension which have been dealt with earlier in the study, the writer presents a sample reading lesson. It is his hope that the presentation, and indeed the whole study, will be of value to his colleagues at the I.I.R., and to others who teach reading in similar situations.

The communicative approach is one of the most characteristic features of contemporary language teaching. This paper aims to study ways of achieving communicative competence of students by using informal language practice and games in teaching. It attempts to look more closely at the relationship between language acquisition, language games and communicative language teaching. This study is based on the theory that language games and informal language practice allow natural learning to occur and provide opportunities for developing communicative competence in a foreign language. While games and informal language practice are widely used in language classrooms in many countries, it appears from the writer's observation and experience of teaching English in China that there is still, among Chinese teachers and students, a great deal of suspicion and uncertainty about the functions and the effectiveness of such classroom activities. Problems detected in language classrooms in using these activities and games suggest that Chinese teachers and students have misunderstood and misused these activities. In this study, it is hoped to analyze in some depth the problems involved in using language games in China, including the attitudes, teaching methods and expectations of the teachers and students. Also, it is hoped to investigate the optimal use of games and practice in Chinese classrooms. As the use of games has received little serious attention in China to date, it is hoped, finally, to suggest ways of using games effectively to improve learners' communicative ability.