In January 2014, British Council Vietnam working in partnership with MOET, televised the first episode of the Primary Teacher Training programme, ‘Motivating Learning’.
The television series offers primary teachers the opportunity to step into the classroom and view English language lessons from selected primary state schools in 9 East Asia countries. Observing good practice helps support teachers in the implementation of interactive child-centred approaches and will provide them with a range of practical ideas and activities which are demonstrated on the screen.
This is part of British Council Vietnam’s work to support the MOET National Foreign Language 2020 Project through teacher education, policy and consultancy work, curriculum and resource development. This co-operation contributes to the project’s end goal of extending the teaching and learning of English to all primary schools in Vietnam to better prepare Vietnamese learners to become better at English language communication to contribute to the industrialization and modernization of the country.
A key priority of this project is ‘to renovate thoroughly teaching and learning foreign languages’ and in primary education this means equipping teachers with further training in teaching methodology so they are able to implement communicative child friendly teaching approaches. There are currently around 16, 000 Primary English teachers in Vietnam, many of who still practice traditional teacher-centred learning. The TV series gives Primary teachers a clear guide to what communicative language teaching and learning look like in primary classrooms.
Comments on the British Councils Vietnam’s virtual support website forum so far from teachers who have watched the series are very positive. One teacher commented ‘Love it very much. I learn much from the ways the teachers organised the speaking activities in class – really motivating for students especially the kids.’ British Council Vietnam aims to continue focusing on delivering English teacher training, resources and materials through the different channels of web, broadcast, mobile as well as direct face to face delivery to help MOET reach its’ goal of innovating the way English is taught and learned in Vietnam.