Teaching figurative language middle school

Implementing an English teaching programme for 1st and 2nd graders at primary schools (Source: bacgiang.gov.vn)

Bac Giang (VNA) – Northern Bac Giang province is set to bolster English teaching at local schools, according to the provincial People’s Committee.

Bac Giang province aims to deploy a 10-year English teaching programme at all local schools by 2025, while encouraging the introduction of English modules at qualified kindergartens and in Grades 1 and 2 at 20% of local primary schools. The province encourages specialised classes at gifted schools teaching natural science subjects like maths, physics, chemistry and biology in English. Bac Giang also sets a target of all English teachers at local schools meeting national foreign language capacity standards by the 2024-2025 academic year.

In order to realise these goals, the provincial Department of Education and Training in cooperation with relevant agencies has hosted training classes to improve the English skills of teachers, inviting native speaking experts and high-quality foreign language training centres to train local teachers. The province has also mobilised social resources to build schools and classrooms for English training. The education sector has also allocated part of the provincial budget to equip specialised English-teaching classrooms at schools currently lacking them.

In the time to come, Bac Giang is determined to speed up the reform of teaching methodology, aggressively apply information technology in teaching and learning, build standardised schools for English teaching at all levels, and enhance extracurricular programmes for English practice among students, such as speaking contests, debates, and outings, etc. Such activities are expected to improve the quality of English teaching in the province.

Coupled with assessing the English capabilities of final-year students at each school, the Bac Giang provincial Department of Education and Training will also focus on expanding international cooperation to improve English teaching and learning quality.

The province’s Scheme for Transforming English Teaching and Learning in Local Schools in the 2016-2020 Period proved effective, posting several encouraging outcomes. The goal of universalising the 10-year English teaching programme has been basically met, with English now a compulsory subject from Grade 3.

English teachers are trained and added every year, meeting the required number and quality in accordance with national foreign language capacity standards. They are regularly sent to training classes with native speakers, from which their English communications capacity and teaching methods are greatly improved.

An Engligh teaching class by a foreign teacher (Source: bacgiang.gov.vn)

Improvements in English teaching quality can be easily observed through the achievements of local students at national contests. Indeed, the number of Bac Giang students participating in national English contests has increased and their rankings are also rising. Local students enjoy the subject and are more confident in English communications.

Bac Giang has upgraded six local schools to the provincial level in English teaching and uses their activities as role models for other local schools. Apart from such schools, each city and district within the province has also developed a model for English teaching at the primary and secondary school level.

All primary schools in the province have hung up bilingual banners, have English corners inside and outside of the classroom, and have English clubs for teachers and students. Many schools also organise extracurricular activities in English, to create an environment for teachers and students to practice their skills. Activities include but are not limited to school gatherings every Monday, English speaking, debate, and singing contests, and English speaking days, among others.

During the 2016-2020 period, the Bac Giang provincial Department of Education and Training also cooperated with several international organisations to organise voluntary English classes within the province.

A project to use foreign teachers for teaching English was implemented at primary and junior and senior high schools in Bac Giang during the 2016-2017 academic year.

Part of the national plan on reforming the teaching and learning of English in general schools to 2020, the project aimed to create an environment to help students better practise their language skills, contributing to improving the quality of English teaching and learning.

Foreign teachers are permitted to teach extra-curricular classes and students are encouraged to enrol on a voluntary basis.

Local schools also joined hands with eligible English training centres to implement the project. All foreign teachers are managed by authorised agencies./.

Korean will be taught at Tran Phu High School in Hai Phong City. Photo for illustration

The Korean class at Tran Phu High School will enroll 35 students each year according to a decision announced by the city People’s Committee.

The Ministry of Education and Training has recently decided to pilot German and Korean as the first foreign languages at local schools.

As such, German and Korean will be taught as the first mandatory languages for students from third grade to twelve grades on the trial basis beginning this year.

Besides the pilot teaching of German and Korean, it is mandatory for Vietnamese students to learn one of the five foreign languages including English, Russian, French, Chinese and Japanese. Local students can opt for one among these languages to study.

Ethnic students in Trần Quốc Tuấn Primary School in Chư Drăng Commune of Krông Pa District enjoy reading in the school library. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Điệp

GIA LAI — Ethnic minority children in Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands) Province of Gia Lai have significantly improved their Vietnamese language skills thanks to a new project on expanding “friendly libraries” in local classes and schools.

Setting up libraries in schools was one of the tasks to strengthen Vietnamese language for pre-school and primary school students in ethnic minority areas.

Since it was launched five years ago, speaking, reading and writing skills of ethnic minority students in many districts improved.

In the 2020-2021 school year, Gia Lai Province has 300 primary schools and more than 600 small-scale school branches over several remote mountainous areas with a total of 6,000 classes and 165,000 students, of which half were ethnic minority.

These children suffer many difficulties and disadvantages, and have little opportunity to access advanced society, so their language skills are limited.

And because they are used to speaking in their own languages, and rarely attend kindergarten classes before school, lessons are difficult to understand.

Gia Lai’s education sector is upgrading facilities and teaching equipment in primary schools.

Many schools set up their own libraries with a variety of books, comics and magazines to help students.

Schools also organised after-school activities such as singing competitions, reading festivals, drawing contests and stationery making competitions.

These activities were helpful and created excitement for ethnic students.

Trần Quốc Tuấn Primary School in Chư Drăng Commune of Krông Pa District which has five branches and nearly 600 ethnic students has seen improvements in the classrooms.

Đoàn Thị Thúy, school principal, said: “In order to make students more interested in going to class, the school was constantly creating a beautiful environment, especially with the library.

“We bought new books, magazines and comics to attract students to come and read, improving their language skills.”

Since the project was launched, the school found that students had developed well, and the quality increased year by year.

Ksor H’Bươi, a fourth grader, said: “After class, my friends and I often went to the library to read books.

“Many of my friends read faster and wrote better thanks to reading books and stories in the library.”

Developing libraries in schools and classrooms is a practical move by the local education sector. However, funding is limited so the books are modest with little supplementation and renewal every year.

Right now, only the main schools have built libraries but small branches have not been able to because of lack of funds.

Nearly 300 of Jrai ethic minority at Ia Jip school branch in Trần Quốc Tuấn Primary School don’t even have basic learning equipment, let alone a library.

The branch is 10km away from the main school and isolated from residential areas and has no internet access and little reading material.

A variety of Vietnamese language magazines and books are available for the ethnic minority children to improve their command of the national language. — VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Điệp

This means students speak only in their mother tongue and were reluctant to talk in Vietnamese.

Fortunately, the school will soon have a small library thanks to the Đinh Hữu Dư Bookcase Initiative set up by Vietnam News Agency’s Youth Union.

Chu Sỹ Lin, deputy head of education and training department of Krông Pa District said over the last five years, reading habits and quality improved year by year.

However, in schools in remote and isolated schools, there was a lack of resources, so the education department often called for sponsors to help the children. — VNS

The 2021 high school graduation examination will basically maintain as 2020. The main goal of the examination is to evaluate the student’s learning results according to the educational objectives of the high school education program.

By Phan Thao – Translated by Anh Quan

Mỹ Anh, dancer and teacher. Photo courtesy of Mỹ Anh

Inner sanctum: When did you first start dancing?

In middle school, I started doing K-pop dance covers by myself for fun. When I got to high school and was blown away by its dance club’s performance, I auditioned and won a place. I began taking lessons seriously at that time, and am still dancing.

Inner sanctum: And when did your teaching career get underway?

I joined Last Fire Crew as a freshman at university. It was a small, unknown crew back then. I started teaching and performing with the crew as we gained more recognition. I taught for no pay initially and only started earning a year or two into it. During my last two years at university, I realised I had become much more devoted to dancing than to my translation major. But I decided to finish my degree, and then applied to studios for teaching jobs as my main career, as well as dancing and choreographing.

Inner sanctum: What does a typical working week look like?

I’m pretty much free during the daytime. I teach three classes in the evening, which amounts to six times a week. I also teach private classes during the day. In my free time, I do research and study into the art of dance and practise with the crew three times a week. I try to keep my schedule empty on the weekend for performances and competitions, and I’m often invited to be a judge.

Inner sanctum: What do you like about what you do?

Besides getting to do what I love and am passionate about, I get positive energy from my students. Seeing how hard the beginners try, I feel even more motivated to do it well. I also get to meet people from many different walks of life and age groups, who are all happy and excited to learn how to dance. My advanced class choreographed their final performance recently. It really was wonderful.

Inner sanctum: Did you struggle with teaching at first?

Of course. I didn’t have enough knowledge to be teaching back then. At some point, I didn’t know what to teach next, and had a major growth slump. I believe that every teacher needs to constantly update their knowledge. For dance teachers, it’s important to stay abreast of trends, like teaching TikTok moves, which are well received by the younger audience.

Teaching kids was the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. I was really stressed out and couldn’t help but scream at them. Then I went to training and workshops and picked up the skills I lacked. It turned out that, with kids, you shouldn’t talk too much — you should just do it and show them.

Inner sanctum: Was it easy to approach hip hop culture despite not living abroad? Why is it important to learn about the culture when learning hip hop?

I only seriously looked into it when I started to teach, so I could give the students some basic knowledge. But self-research is not enough. I attended workshops and sought advice from professional international dancers I met at contests, to deepen my knowledge. Hip hop is an imported culture. It’s not our own. To know it well is to respect other people’s culture.

Inner sanctum: I see that you’re really detailed at giving cues. Is there a reason behind that?

As a student, I liked teachers who taught meticulously. Students sign up for classes so they can dance as well as the teacher. So it’s important to show them how to go about it.

Some teachers aren’t certain of what they are teaching, and come across as lost. But when they know what they’re doing, so will the students.

Inner sanctum: How does it feel to win teacher awards?

I’m actually a very competitive person in everything I do. As it was done by voting, I lobbied all of my students to vote for me. The award is also physical proof of a year of hard work as a teacher.

Inner sanctum: What’s the best thing about the hip hop community in Việt Nam?

I’ve heard that hip hop abroad is divided into many different styles and crews who tend to compete against each other, since it revolves around the “battle” culture.

In Việt Nam, all of the crews are pretty much united and so free to create. Hip hop is also taught in studios, which gives more people the opportunity to learn and practise. VNS