The National Conference on “Innovations in Teaching and Learning English at Tertiary Level: A Response to Social Needs” held on December 17th 2022 at Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA) is one of the significant activities to Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Faculty of Tourism and Foreign Languages – Vietnam National University of Agriculture (10/01/1998 – 10/01/2023). In the plenary sessions of the National Conference, a study on “Stakeholders’ assessment of English-majors’ Language Competence at Vietnam National University of Agriculture” was presented by Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy. The main aim of the study is to investigate how stakeholders (employers, scientists, lecturers, alumni, and students) assess VNUA English majors’ language competence so as to give some suggestions to improve English language teaching & learning at VNUA to respond to social needs.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy presented
The research instrument for data analysis is a survey questionnaire with four parts: Part 1: General information; Part 2.1. Stakeholders’ assessments of English majors’ language competence with 8 items. Each item uses 5 Likert scale: 1.Very dissatisfied, 2. Dissatisfied, 3. Neutral, 4. Satisfied, 5. Very satisfied; Part 2.2. Requirements on English proficiency of graduates with 7 items. Each item uses 5 Likert scale: 1-2-3-4-5 of necessity; Part 3: Stakeholders’ suggestions to improve teaching-learning English with two open-ended questions: (i). Regarding the duration of the programme/course, how should it be increased/decreased? Why? (ii). Regarding the content of the course, should there be anything added/ removed? Why?; and Part 4: Other ideas. The participants consist of 171 stakeholders (32 employers, 30 scientists, 30 lecturers, 29 alumni, and 50 students) from 10 universities, colleges, high schools, English centers and companies in Hanoi, Bacninh, Bacgiang, Haiduong and Hungyen.
The results of the study show that most of the stakeholders (employers, scientists, lecturers, alumni, and students) feel satisfied and very satisfied with VNUA English majors’ language competence with the lowest mean scores (3.03 in Item 4. indicating Scientists’ satisfaction with writing skills) and the highest mean scores (3.97 in Item 7. indicating Employers’ satisfaction with students’ skills in looking up specialized documents in English). For stakeholders’ requirements for English majors, almost all stakeholders stated that the English proficiency of graduates is important and very important with the mean scores: 3.97 (in Item 1. Scientists’ requirements for Listening & understanding) and 4.31 (in Item 7. Lecturers’ requirements for using vocabulary in different fields).
When asked about their suggestions to improve teaching and learning English at VNUA, the stakeholders give a lot of suggestions. Employers suggest that it is necessary to increase the time to do exercises to understand the meaning of words, change the way of assessment enhance field trips and/or extra curriculum activities for students in companies to perfect their skills when they go to work. These are scientists’ recommendation: Increasing the number of credits for Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, providing more time for students to practice more, needing to link with other institutions that use English in training some contents in curriculum, students’ needing to improve their learning styles, & motivation as some students are really weak and lazy. Lecturers’ suggestions are: increasing the number of credits for Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, increasing time allocation for practice activities & Lexicology, creating blended learning, increasing teaching & learning materials; investing in learning facilities to help students practice, increasing international exchange activities, increasing the number of scholarships to encourage students. Alumni suggest that the teachers should add a lot of knowledge to Listening and Speaking skills to help students improve their communicative competence, especially for weaker students, create more conditions for students to practice, organize more extracurricular activities with an environment to speak English, have exchange programmes to make students develop English naturally and increase communication, presentation skills, need to add more about pedagogy for those who want to do teaching. Students’ suggestions are: VNUA should add more practice parts for students such as translating and interpreting, more practice with foreigners to help improve all four skills. Presentation subject should be learned in the first year. Teachers should focus more on giving activities to facilitate students to use English proficiently and fluently.
After the presentation, the conference participants discussed actively about how to improve the quality of teaching and learning English in Vietnamese context in general and at VNUA in particular to respond to the social needs.
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