Job Discussion Forums

[Sherri]

Hi
I am teaching ESL to adults in Hawaii. Most of our students are Japanese, Chinese and Korean. For the first time, we got a student from Vietnam. He is in his mid-20s, and is a university professor from Hanoi. We are struggling with teaching him.

His classroom behaviour is so different from the other students. He won't work in pairs or groups. He sometimes works on homework from other classes during the class. His homework is of high standard and it is obvious that he spends a great deal of time on it, he just can't seem to pay attention in class!

Another problem is that his accent is so heavy that the other students can't understand him well. I have trouble myself. I think this is one reason why he may not be keen to work in groups because no one can understand him.

Anyway, this is the first time that I have taught someone from Vietnam (though I have travelled around Hanoi and the north) and we are expecting more students from Vietnam in the summer. I wonder if you have any tips for teaching Vietnamese or any words of advice? I would welcome your comments.

Best regards
Sherri

[Paul John]

Hi, Sherri.

The Vietnam Teaching FAQ has a section on specific grammar and pron problems that Vietnamese students have with English. However, that won't help much with the students classroom behaviour, I'm afraid.

[Sherri]

Thank you Paul John. I found it hepful and will share this information with his other teachers.
Sherri

[Mr Wind-up Bird]

It could be the old "loss of face" issue rearing its ugly head. I've had it with several classes here and it seems to affect male students in particular - they're afraid to speak and get involved for fear of making a mistake & thus making themselves look stupid in front of others.

For your student the problem may be exacerbated by the fact that he's in a class with foreigners.

Secondly, Vietnamese students are generally shyer than those you're used to teaching - VN's education system doesn't encourage people to express their opinions!

And thirdly, as he's from Hanoi, it could be good old-fashioned xenophobia - the Hanoians are notoriously insular and distrustful of foreigners, with good historical reason admittedly.

[lexpat]

Hello Sherri

I've been teaching in Hanoi for about a year now, this after teaching in Thailand and San Francisco, where I had a mixed bag of students: Latin Americans, Euros, Asians, Arabs.

Vietnamese are definitely among the most pedantic people I've taught. They like rules, believe language can be captured in grammatical descriptions, and come from a fairly critical culture in which telling someone they are wrong, is OK. (unlike, say, Thais) If someone somewhere along the line tells them something, they will cling to it forever. I once had a student insist April was spelled Avril - his Viet teacher had got it wrong in a lecture - and I had to take him to a stationery store to prove I was right. Such are the ways of a deeply conservative Confucian society with a Communist overlay. Authority is authority.

BUT, I suspect teaching Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam is very different. Teachers here are revered...just not foreign teachers so much. When off their turf, I would suspect they would kiss up big time.

Anyway, good luck. Are you Kailua or Hilo side? I was staying out by Captain Cook a few years ago. May go back someday...

[Mr Wind-up Bird]

[Sherri]

Thanks again everyone. Today he was sitting in the far corner of a large classroom when all the other students (all Japanese) were sitting around a big table that we always use for the lessons. I guess he thought he could hide back there during the lesson? I am starting to get a better fix on the pronunciation problems gradually but I still wonder how much he actually understands (terrible listening comp!)

Sherri
On the Hilo side of the Big Island

[Blade]

[Mr Wind-up Bird]

Never, EVER used the word "rule" when teaching a piece of grammar to a Vietnamese class! As far as they're concerned, all rules are 100% fixed and set, and the concept of a "general" rule is alien to them. Exceptions to rules just blow their minds.

Last week I taught an elementary class how to form "-ing" words, and that, for the most part, verbs with a single vowel & consonant (eg get, swim, ship etc) take a double consonant in the gerund form (getting, swimming etc). Two days later one of them asks me about "draw", & asks why, in that case, we don't say "drawwing". I told him that you never, ever see a double 'w' in English. I expect he's spending his weekend scouring every dictionary he can find for a "ww"

[H5N1]

^ A very wise point!!