VietNamNet Bridge – Dr Nguyen Duc Nghia, Deputy Director of the HCM City National University, believes that it is necessary to make heavier investment in teaching English to university students.

Students of the HCM City National University are learning English

The HCM City National University has conducted a survey on the English skill levels of HCM City National University students based on the results of the university entrance exams from 2005-2008.

According to Dr Le Thi Thanh Mai, Deputy Head of University and Post-University Training Division, the average exam marks of English of D1 group students (the students who sit for mathematics, English and literature exams) was 5.94 marks. The students of the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities under the HCM City National University got 5.72 marks on average.

Mai has cited a lot of reasons to explain the low marks students got on the exams, including the exam questions and the skills of students.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the National University in the project on renovating and heightening the efficiency of the teaching and learning of English at university and post-university levels in 2009-2013 said that the lack of English teachers is the most prominent problem.

By the end of August 2008, HCM City National University had 53,758 undergrads, 5,560 students in master’s courses and 400 doctoral enrollees, but only 184 English lecturers. Of these lecturers, there were only 53 permanent lecturers, the others were visiting lecturers.

According to associate Prof Dr Duong Anh Duc, Deputy Principal of the HCM City University of Natural Sciences, there is a vicious circle: universities all want high-quality but low-cost training.

Duc affirmed that high-quality training is never obtained at a low cost.

Sharing the same viewpoint, Associate Prof Dr Nguyen Van Trinh, Deputy Dean of Economics Faculty, added that with low tuition fees and low pay for lecturers, lecturers have to do extra work to earn their living, or they leave universities for English centres.

Meanwhile, Dr Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu from the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities has blamed the low quality of English teaching on the high number of students in a class (50-60). Thu said that students do not have a chance to practice English.

Nghia also said that it is necessary to focus on building up a contingent of English lecturers, retraining them periodically and sending them abroad for re-training. He also emphasised the need to amend the syllabuses for English teaching, while designing different teaching methods for students majoring in and not majoring in foreign languages.

(Source: Tuoi tre)