Making English the Second Language in Schools: A Few Thoughts on Vietnam's New Policy
By Dr. Linh Phung
Dr. Nguyễn Thị Mai Hữu from the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) of Vietnam recently shared the roadmap for making English the second language in schools in Vietnam, setting specific targets:
By 2030: 100% of schools in major cities, specialized high schools, and universities transition to an "ESL" model.
By 2035: 30% of schools in other areas achieve the ESL targets (Levels 1, 2, and 3).
By 2045: 60% of schools in other areas achieve the ESL targets (Levels 1, 2, and 3).
Put simply, this policy consists of two core dimensions: increasing English usage within school environments and implementing teaching models such as CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), Bilingual Education, and EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction). Dr. Hữu emphasized that one of the strategic goals is to improve overall educational quality. At the conference, the Director of SEAMEO RETRAC in Hồ Chí Minh City also noted that this is a vital step toward enhancing the competitiveness and integration of Vietnam's workforce within ASEAN.
Dr. Mai Hữu posed a question to the audience: Are teachers confident that these goals can be achieved? How would you answer?
MOET recently published updates on building English-speaking environments. Based on my observations and practical experience developing curricular and extracurricular programs, I see many existing activities in Vietnam that can be scaled up:
✓ English Clubs: Regular practice environments for students.
✓ Competitions: Skill-based contests and artistic performances in English.
✓ Library Resources & Activities: Expanded English book selections paired with weekly conversation sessions.
✓ Digital Wilds: Authentic online English environments, a concept Dr. Greg Kessler discussed with us on the Language Innovators Podcast.
✓ Online Resources: YouTube and diverse online courses.
✓ Community Engagement: Events hosted by embassies or international organizations.
✓ Professional Workshops: Expanding knowledge through webinars from international educational organizations.
✓ Global Exchanges: Programs like Culture Club connecting learners directly with peers worldwide.
Only activities like these make English come alive and give it real meaning, serving as authentic target tasks for learning.
On the instructional side, I know many institutions already run internationalized activities: inviting guest speakers/professors, hosting international conferences, international summer camps, student exchanges, and implementing online models like Virtual Exchange and COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning).
Pedagogical Perspectives: If we focus solely on CLIL or EMI when teaching subjects in English, it is easy to lose sight of the fundamentals of language development. The core barrier remains: both teachers and learners must reach a baseline language proficiency to deliver and master academic content, especially at higher education levels. Interestingly, I don't hear as much about bilingual or multilingual education programs designed to develop proficiency in both Vietnamese and English.
On a positive note, content-based instruction presents a major opportunity to improve educational quality just as Dr. Mai Hữu envisions. It moves English learning away from rote vocabulary memorization, mechanical grammar drills, and exercises that fail to build true communicative competence. Technology platforms must also transform how they present content to foster genuine language acquisition, rather than using AI and other technologies to deliver traditional, repetitive drills. This is precisely the focus of Eduling as we embrace principles of instructed language learning to maximize conditions for second language development.
At the VietTESOL conference in Danang on August 27-29, in my featured speech, I presented my perspectives on leveraging content, language tasks, and technology to build an ESL ecosystem in Vietnam.
It's a conceptual piece connecting content and tasks while highlighting SECOND LANGUAGE acquisition and the unique needs of the SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS as we talk about building an ESL (English as a SECOND LANGUAGE) ecosystem. Technological solutions also need to embrace SLA principles and communicative teaching approaches such as TBLT and CLIL rather than mechanical drills dressed up as AI tutoring and correction so as not to be merely ... “old wine in a new bottle!”
This year, my examples also came from my daughter learning Vietnamese in Vietnam. You can say it's a truly "Vietnamese as a second language" environment and of course from my intensive work developing 4000+ tasks for the Eduling app.
In a pre-conference workshop, I offered practical suggestions to make activities in the Global Success textbook series more meaningful, helping students develop true functional language proficiency.
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