VietNamNet Bridge – Ethnic minority kids facing a language barrier in class topped talks at a seminar of international and domestic experts in the capital yesterday.

Vietnamese language classes and primary school curricula were quite difficult for ethnic minority students.

Many students spoke either little or no Vietnamese before they enter first grade, said Vu Thi Thanh Huong, representative of the Institute of Linguistics. “Only 5 per cent of five-year-old ethnic children have the chance to attend a Vietnamese preparation class before starting school,” she said.

“As a result, they don’t understand the lessons and soon drop out of school.”

Officials from Lao Cai Province, an area that has successfully conducted the Vietnamese learning programme for children, admitted that although the province had managed to ensure 100 per cent of pre-schoolers had basic Vietnamese and primary students had literacy skills, Vietnamese language classes and primary school curricula were quite difficult for ethnic minority students.

“It takes children about two years to use a new language for daily communication and between five to seven years to understand academic content,” said Susan Malone, consultant for Multilingual Education of the US-based Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Time for action

After the Government launched decree 01/GD-DT in February 1997 on teaching ethnic minority languages, many pilot programmes on the subject have sprung up.

“These programmes showed positive changes, for example, the number of drop-outs fell, especially in the northwest region where students have to face many difficulties,” said Mong Ky Slay, head of the Ministry of Education and Training’s Department of Ethnic Minority Education.

Slay also gave an outline for teaching Vietnamese in the academic year 2008-09, saying that the programme to introduce Vietnamese in kindergartens and pre-schools would continue.

“The Vietnamese teaching plan in primary schools in rural areas will be adjusted to 50 weeks per year, 15 weeks more than last year. The plan will be carried out by either teaching two sessions per day or with time extensions,” Slay said.

At the same time, the educational authorities, in collaboration with UNICEF, would draft mother-tongue based bilingual plans to help children learn Vietnamese in Lao Cai, Gia Lai and Tra Vinh provinces.

However, Huong said that intensively learning Vietnamese was not enough for kids to develop adequate proficiency in Vietnamese to learn subject matters.

“We also need to help protect ethnic minority languages from extinction. We should tailor each plan to the specific situation of each school or area,” she said.

A representative of Lao Cai Province’s Department of Education and Training said that a set of text book for ethnic minority areas should be provided and a one-year studying programme must be made compulsory for kindergartens.

However, Susan Malone said that children should not be forced to speak until they were ready, adding that bilingual education programmes should be applied.

The seminar, held under the co-operation of the MoET, UNICEF, UNESCO, World Bank and other organisations, wraps up tomorrow.

(Source: Viet Nam News)