Abstract
The chapter provides a critical assessment on the reality of current teacher quality and the roles of the ELPs in advancing linguistic, education and socio-economic developments for various students, especially those from minority linguistic backgrounds in a remote province. The results reveal the probably unpromising outcomes and tremendous challenges of the present ELPs as teacher professional development in the current ELP reform is, for the most part, controversial, ambivalent, and contested. Furthermore, the chapter argues that, contrary to the state’s goal of promoting English for socio-economic and educational advancement, these language policies could largely threaten social, educational and economic development, and minority students’ linguistic and cultural ecology. The chapter thus emphasizes the urgent need for a comprehensive understanding of the interconnectedness among effective teacher professional development; cultural and linguistic complexity; language/literacy education; and socio-economic needs throughout the processes of language policy decision-making and implementation. To the end, the chapter strongly recommends respecting home languages and multilingualism for effective schooling, transparent and transformative education, a strong economy, social welfare, and social security at local and global scales.
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Notes
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For instance, 700 teachers from Ben Tre Province in the Mekong Delta were tested, and only 61 obtained the required score (500). In the capital, Hanoi, teachers’ IELTS results showed that only 18 % had achieved the B2 grade (Ed-Parks, 2011).
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We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Professor Richard B. Baldauf Jr., The University of Queensland, Australia and Professor Robert Kaplan, University of Southern California, USA for their insightful feedback on this paper.
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Bui, T.T.N., Nguyen, H.T.M. (2016). Standardizing English for Educational and Socio-economic Betterment- A Critical Analysis of English Language Policy Reforms in Vietnam. In: Kirkpatrick, R. (eds) English Language Education Policy in Asia. Language Policy, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22464-0_17
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