The Importance Of English As A Foreign Language In Vietnam?

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All over the world, English is considered an international language, it is the bridge among the countries. In Viet Nam English has become essential and mandatory communication language since the opening of its doors to the world in 1986. There are many companies from all over the world started coming to invest in Vietnam. This has motivated Vietnamese to learn foreign language especial English to facilitate efficient and effective communication among their counterparts. Understanding the importance of English in the developing process in Vietnam, the Vietnamese Prime Minister issued Decision “Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages in the National Formal Education System in the Period 2008 -2020” to promote the study of English further and
In addition, many English teachers usually use traditional methods to teach vocabulary, such as translating, repeating the new words and reciting the new words. These methods of learning and teaching English vocabulary are intentional learning, in other words, explicit learning. Furthermore, Viet Nam is not an English-speaking country and its cultural background, and educational philosophy is totally different from the English speaking countries. Students in Viet Nam only study and use English in the classroom environment and they have to learn the vocabulary mechanically. Thus rote learning is common and popular in Viet Nam. These are the reasons why most Vietnamese students afraid of reading in English and they cannot acquire the knowledge naturally. However, many researchers found that “many native speakers acquire 70% of their native language incidentally as they meet with new words in the speech and writing of others.” (Gui, 2010. (as cited in Read, 2000) ). This means incidental learning is one of the useful ways for language acquisition. According to Gui “Incidental vocabulary learning means learners acquire vocabulary unconsciously when they are using language for the communicative purpose.” (as cited in Schmitt, 2000: 120) . Furthermore Hunt and Beglar (1998) (as cite in Zarie &

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