Bilingual Language Education Policy And The English As A...

This paper presents a gap between current foreign language education policy and the English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching practices in addressing intercultural communication objectives in Vietnam. Although the current Vietnamese foreign language education policy advocates the intercultural communication aims, intercultural language teaching and learning has not yet been applied in foreign language classrooms. The findings from interviews, class observations and document analysis show that foreign language teachers mainly focus on developing learners’ linguistic performance rather than their intercultural competence because current policy statements about pedagogies and content of intercultural language teaching have not been explicitly expressed and communicated to foreign language teachers. The author suggests a bottom-up policy making process in which policy-makers and language teachers should both involve in addressing the pedagogy of intercultural language teaching. This article contributes greatly to the new research area of policy-practice relationship in intercultural language learning and teaching in Vietnam, especially in the current trend of Vietnamese education reform; hence it should be accepted with minor revisions in the International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning. In fact, this article is coherent and well informed with data from the author’s original research. It presents valuable findings and suggestions which have not been reported previouslyShow MoreRelatedBilingual Education System in China Essay1005 Words   |  5 Pagesin today’s world that bilingual education is becoming one of the most significant issues in the sphere of global education. In comparison with the status of bilingual education (BE) in China, a great deal more is known about its development in countries of Europe and North America (Feng 2007, vii). 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