On June 11^th – 14^th, 2019, ULIS – VNU organized a training course entitled “Using and operating online training courses for general English teachers on teaching methods and pedagogical skills” for 120 trainers and technical staff from 10 institutions assigned by Ministry of Education and Training to foster foreign language teachers throughout the country. This program is part of the implementation of the National Foreign Languages Project.

This is one of the important activities in the NFL Project’s plan to innovate and improve the quality of English teacher training at all levels of general education, helping provincial Departments of Education and Training to improve the quality of language teaching staff at primary, secondary and high school in the future.

On June 11^th, 2019, the opening session of the training course was attended by representative leaders in the Management Board of the National Foreign Languages Project, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Huu – Head and Mr. Tran Trong Hung – Vice Head. Representatives of ULIS – VNU, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Long – ULIS’s Vice President, Mr. Hoa Ngoc Son, Dean of Faculty of Language Education and Professional Development and Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Nhung, Vice Dean of Faculty of Language Education and Professional Development and representatives of units took part in the event. In addition, the event witnessed the presence of lecturers and reporters of the training course such as Mr. Tran Phuoc Linh, the Head of the Project Research Department of Seameo Center, Mr. Khoa Anh Viet, Director of the Center for Information Technology – Communications and Learning Materials (ULIS – VNU) and Mr. Trinh Hai Tuan, Vice Director of the Center for Information Technology – Communications and Learning Materials (ULIS – VNU).

Notably, the ceremony was attended by 120 trainers and technical staff from 10 units namely Ho Chi Minh University of Education, Can Tho University, Seameo Regional Training Center, University of Foreign Languages – The University of Da Nang, University of Foreign Languages – Hue University, Vinh University, Thai Nguyen University, Hanoi University, Hanoi University of Education and ULIS – VNU.

Delivering his speech at the opening ceremony, Vice President Long introduced the set of documents containing 5 manuals on how to develop the environment of learning and using foreign languages in the education system of all levels. He emphasized the importance of the manuals and claimed that valuable knowledge and experience included would be a great support to lecturers and staff attending the training course. In addition, the Vice President also shared the introduction and inception of the purely Vietnamese online system created by ULIS – VNU for the National Foreign Languages Project. He expressed his belief that lectures and courses offered by the system would be a useful shared resource facilitating lecturers in the field and also wished to receive constructive suggestions from the lecturers so that ULIS would be able to advance the system.

In her speech, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Huu – Head of the Management Board of the National Foreign Languages Project said that since the academic year of 2011 -2012, many activities had been carried out to improve the teaching quality and foster foreign language pedagogical skills for high school teachers. However, the result did not live up to the expectation. Therefore, after many surveys and assessments, the Project Management Board decided to change the methods toward letting lecturers directly participate in the Project on teaching with teachers at the basic levels. This, as a result, will evoke the excitement of students and help teachers get faster access to the highlights and positive features of the new teaching methods. In addition, extracurricular activities in English will be actively promoted in schools at all levels.

Afterwards, the trainers and technical staff participated in the first training course on building and developing foreign language learning environment submitted by the National Foreign Languages Project Management Board. The presentation focused on some issues such as the necessity and development of the learning environment and the use of foreign languages; guiding opinions; advantages and disadvantages; conditions for the program implementation; and the detailed program implementation plan.

The training course would last until June 14^th, 2019.

The second training component: In-class English – Keynote speaker: Vu Hai Ha.

The third training component: New English education programs in primary schools – Keynote speaker: Vu Hai Ha.

The fourth training component: New English education programs in lower and upper secondary schools – Keynote speaker: Vu Hai Ha.

The fifth training component: Methods of fostering English teachers – Keynote speakers: British Council (3 experts).

The sixth training component: Foreign Languages Testing and Assessment – Keynote speaker: Duong Thu Mai.

The seventh training component: Applying IT in teaching foreign languages – Keynote speaker: Khoa Anh Viet.

Besides general training sessions, technical staff participated in training lessons on skills of operating online courses from Tuesday afternoon (11/06) to Friday morning (14/06) at Room 402 – B3 building. Keynote speakers: Trinh Hai Tuan, Nguyen Tien Dung.