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A critical look at the written English component in Vietnamese tertiary EFL : with recommendations for the improvement of writing skills for teachers undergoing inservice ugrading courses

This study attempts to investigate the teaching of written English in Vietnam
with special attention to the main problems encountered by teachers of
English at the main language institutions in the light of the literature and
practices in general ELT.
The first chapter is the introduction of the study. It covers the aim and scope
to be achieved in the study, and explains the sources of data to be used for
the study. Terminology of some phrases and abbreviations for convenient use
are also given.
Chapter 2 focuses on general ELT developments. Major trends in ELT and
their practices are brought into discussion. Then in the light of the literature
in ELT, the teaching of writing is taken into consideration. Being an
important component in ELT, the teaching of writing has to satisfy this need
of learners - the need for effective communication - without overlooking
correctness, accuracy and other features of good writing. However, there is
no single approach that can provide a perfect answer to all the learners'
problems.
Chapter 3 discusses the teaching and learning situation in Vietnam in three
stages from 1959 to 1986. It is made clear that the situation is not satisfactory
due to the methods, techniques, materials and the quality of teachers. Then
special investigation is made into the writing area. It is discovered that
complex writing is avoided because of the teachers' low standard and their
methods and techniques in teaching written English. Improvement courses
have been held, but they did not include writing programmes for teachers.
Chapter 4 analyses the main problems affecting the teaching of writing in
Vietnam, such as teachers' unawareness of language appropriateness and
correctness, their difficulty at discourse level and lack of cultural knowledge.
Teachers' misconceptions about errors and lack of methods and techniques in
dealing with errors also result in ineffective teaching.
In Chapter 5 some recommendations are made for teaching writing to
inservice teachers in the upgrading course. They focus on the methods and
techniques to be used in such a writing course. Some techniques for
composition correction are also suggested. Unfortunately, there is no single
book that is ideal for such a course. A selection of current writing
coursebooks is given in the hope that teachers will find material to suit the
needs of their students in them. The last recommendations are for teaching
academic writing which involves more sophisticated skills than writing on
general topics.
Finally the writer makes some comments on her own work and suggests
further research into the writing area.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218982
Date January 1986
CreatorsHa, Le Thi, n/a
PublisherUniversity of Canberra. Education
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Rights), Copyright Le Thi Ha

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