Learning teaching in the UK

“The two-week training course with Pilgrims in the UK was a fantastic and unforgettable experience in both my professional and personal life.”

Ngo Thi Xuan Hoa from Yen Bai was one of two teachers to be given the opportunity to study in the UK in competitions at last year’s VTTN ELT Conference. Her two-week course with Pilgrims in Kent focused on methodology in secondary school teaching. It covered practical areas such as: ways of presenting and practising grammar and vocabulary, ideas to encourage pair/group work at different levels, work on pronunciation and learning its components, dealing with ‘difficult behaviour’ and many other sessions. Hoa said that working with the excellent trainers, “encouraged me to re-assess my ‘teacher beliefs and attitudes’ in the light of current trends in ELT methodology.” She also said, “The course helped me to discover how ‘traditional ideas’ can be used creatively.” She worked with 30 other teachers from around Europe and they enjoyed seeing Canterbury and getting down to London. She said, “The two-week training course with Pilgrims in the UK was a fantastic and unforgettable experience in both my professional and personal life.”

“The course helped me discover how ‘traditional ideas’ can be used creatively.”

Tran Anh Nguyet, VTTN teacher trainer from Phu Tho province, was the other winner. She went to Norwich, England with 10 other teachers from Denmark, Spain, Romania, Switzerland, Poland and Italy for a two-week course entitled, ‘Communicative Language Teaching and Testing’. The course with the Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE) covered many important areas including how to get learners to speak, how to assess their speaking and how to evaluate and assess students in communicative contexts. She says she had a wonderful time staying with her host family and visiting some interesting places when she wasn’t studying. Nguyet continues to impress those around her with her professional knowledge and dedication.

“…..how to get learners to speak and how to assess their speaking and how to evaluate and assess students generally in communicative contexts.”


Trainer training

In June of this year, 22 VTTN teacher trainers from 11 of the VTTN provinces around Vietnam came to the British Council in Ha Noi for an intensive oneweek course to improve their training skills.
The course covered the many important areas of trainer training, but also included time for dinner on a floating restaurant on Ho Tay and a visit to Van Phuc silk village. Vu Minh Huong from Hai Phong said she got a lot from the course and referring to the social aspect of the course said that, “It was a great opportunity to talk, share ideas and network.”

Using their knowledge and commitment to help develop English language teaching in Viet Nam, VTTN trainers continue to do a great and important job.


We laughed, we sweated, we learnt and we VTTNed!

In the sweltering heat in July and August the VTTN workshops on ‘Making Grammar Communicative’ were held around the country. These workshops emphasised learning to use English to communicate rather than studying rules about English. As usual there was some theory, lots of practical ideas and a chance to try things out through peer teaching. In many provinces the peer teaching was excellent, providing lots of opportunities to learn from each other and think about how we teach.

Teachers then went back to their schools to pass on what they had learnt in their upcoming school training sessions. You’ll find some the ideas that came out of the workshop in the following pages.


May in Myanmar

Nguyen Minh Huong, VTTN trainer and teacher from Hue, attended the conference “English Across The Curriculum” in Myanmar in May this year. The two-day conference, hosted by the British Council in Myanmar was attended by over 400 teachers and there were over 50 presentations. Some of the many areas covered included; Integrating Thinking Skills into ELT, Using Real Objects as Content, Teaching Reading and Content, Integrating Pronunciation into the Content-based Classroom and many more…..
In this event teachers were also offered the chance to join the Science Across the World programme (www.scienceacross.org), a great opportunity for networking with teachers and learners around the world! (Have a look yourselves!) Minh Huong had to work hard, but also had time to attend other presentations and see the famous Shwedagon Pagoda.

“The conference was a huge success and unforgettable event for me!” she says.


2005 Hornby Trust scholar returns home

Each year there is an opportunity for an ELT practitioner to study a post-graduate degree in the UK through the Hornby Trust Scholarship. Nguyen Dinh Thanh Lam was the 2005 awardee. He spent a year at Lancaster University in England following an MA in TESOL.

Lam says his time in England was very valuable. He says he had many vivid and interesting experiences and met many interesting people from around the world during his stay. A memory from the World Cup was:

“During the quarter-final match between England and Portugal, we were trying a variety of local beers (there was a beer festival on campus). The atmosphere was great and we were shouting and cheering. When the penalty shootout finished, we were all so sad and disappointed. No one said anything and some young girls who were watching with us were in tears.”

Goodbyes

Sadly we say goodbye to British Council Trainer, Jane Boylan, who moved to Singapore in August. She says, “Working for VTTN was such a great experience for me. I’ll never forget the wonderful people I met and the great hospitality I received in the provinces I worked in. I wish everybody involved in VTTN all the very best, especially those trainers that I worked with in the Southern Provinces.”


A professional qualification in ELT

Hoang Thi Le, a VTTN trainer from Hue, and Nguyen Thi Thu Hang, a teacher from Hanoi, both won scholarships to study for Trinity TESOL certificates supported by City College Manchester and the British Council. The competition for the places was fierce with the applicants having to first write an essay on “To what extent has the teaching of English language changed in Vietnam over the last 10 years”, followed by teaching a lesson for the short-listed candidates. Sandra Fraser flew over from Manchester to help judge the teaching and said of the finalists, “I was in awe of their professionalism and confidence, given the pressures of the competition.”

The winners, Le and Hang worked hard on the fiveweek course and have done Vietnam proud. Le was awarded a distinction. They said that they really enjoyed their time in Manchester with their host families. They liked the peace and quiet of Manchester and were surprised how many trees there were in the famous industrial city. They even complimented the food!                          
                           
                                                           Back to top