Situation of Thai language teaching in Vietnamese Universities

This research paper aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the situation of Thai language teaching in Vietnamese universities; the difficulties and prospects of developing Thai language in Vietnam.

TÌNH HÌNH DẠY TIẾNG THÁI TẠI CÁC TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC VIỆT NAM

Trn Cm Tú Trường Đại học Hà Nội

Việt Nam và Thái Lan ñược thúc ñẩy mạnh mẽ trên

mọi bình diện ñã mở ra cơ hội cho tiếng Thái dần

dần trở nên phổ biến hơn ở Việt Nam Tuy nhiên, tài

liệu và các công trình nghiên cứu về việc dạy tiếng

Thái ở Việt Nam vẫn còn rất hạn chế Để tìm hiểu về

tình hình dạy tiếng Thái trong các trường ñại học tại

Việt Nam và triển vọng phát triển của ngôn ngữ này

trong tương lai, nghiên cứu này ñã sử dụng bảng

câu hỏi khảo sát và phỏng vấn các giáo viên Việt

Nam ñang dạy tiếng Thái tại bảy trường ñại học

trong cả nước Kết quả ñiều tra cung cấp một bức

tranh toàn cảnh về chương trình học và tài liệu dạy

học tiếng Thái, ñội ngũ giáo viên và ñặc ñiểm của

sinh viên; những khó khăn gặp phải và tương lại

phát triển của ngôn ngữ này tại Việt Nam Nghiên

cứu hy vọng sẽ cung cấp những thông tin thiết thực

và ñáng tin cậy nhằm góp phần phát triển chuyên

ngành ngôn ngữ Thái trong bối cảnh hai nước phát

triển mạnh mẽ mối quan hệ song phương và ña

phương, chuẩn bị cho sự thành lập Cộng ñồng

chung ASEAN vào năm 2015 sắp tới

Abstract: The reality of Vietnam-Thailand’s

flourishing relations and co-operations in

wide-ranged areas opens up chances for Thai language

to become more popular in Vietnam In that context, there exists a lack of documents and research on how Thai language has been taught in Vietnam so far, which poses two questions to this study: (1) How

is the situation of Thai language teaching in Vietnam? And (2) What are the prospects to develop Thai language teaching in Vietnam? In order to address these points, this study uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches to collect data

in the form of interviews and a questionnaire survey Participants are Vietnamese teachers who teach Thai in seven universities 1 running Thai language program throughout Vietnam The findings obtained bring about an overview and in-depth description of how Thai language is taught in each university (curriculum, teaching materials, teachers and students), the difficulties that these programs are encountering, and future of Thai language in Vietnam The research is hoped to be a reliable reference source on the subject matter and give useful contribution to teaching Thai in ASEAN countries, for the benefit of the official establishment

of ASEAN Community in 2015.

1 Seven universities subjected to the study are as follows:

1 Military Science Academy

2 University of Social Science and Humanities, Vietnam National University in Hochiminh City

3 University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University in Hanoi

4 Hochiminh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology

5 University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University in Hanoi

6 College of Foreign Languages, University of Danang

7 Hanoi University

SITUATION OF THAI LANGUAGE TEACHING

IN VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITIES

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

Vietnam and Thailand, both located in the

Southeast Asian region, share many natural and

socio-cultural similarities The two nations

established the diplomatic relations in 1976, and

announced a strategic partnership in 2013 This

significant decision has opened up new prospects

for promoting bilateral relations and deepening

comprehensive collaboration between Vietnam

and Thailand In term of languages, they will

“establish Thai and Vietnamese Studies centers at

certain universities in each country”, according

the joint statement(Vietnam News Agency, 2013)

In the regional context, the establishment of

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Community at the end of 2015 boosts the demand

for ASEAN language learning Although English

is chosen to be the regional common language,

ASEAN leaders promote their peoples to learn

languages of the neighbouring countries to

improve communication and understanding

between ASEAN citizens Knowing regional

languages is definitely a priority for anyone who

wants to join the free movement of labour force

and increase their chances of getting good jobs

Educational institutions of Vietnam are paying

more attention to ASEAN languages, especially

Thai, Indonesian and Khmer while Vietnamese

youths are also getting more enthusiastic in

learning “less commonly taught” languages

It was during the 1990s when Thai language

was formally taught in the tertiary education

system Since then, seven universities of Vietnam

have opened Thai language programmes so far,

including Military Science Academy (MSA),

University of Social Science and Humanities in

Vietnam National University, Hochiminh City

(USSH HCM), University of Social Sciences and

Humanities in Vietnam National University, Hanoi (USSH Hanoi), Hochiminh City University

of Foreign Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT), University of Language and International Studies in Vietnam National University, Hanoi (ULIS Hanoi), College of Foreign Languages in University of Danang (CFL Danang), and Hanoi University (HANU)

Although Thai language has been formally taught in Vietnam for about two decades, Thai is still not a language so popular in Vietnam compared to English, French, Chinese, Japanese

or Korean The academic staff in this field is therefore of a small number A few studies have been carried out including some comparative studies on the linguistic features of Vietnamese and Thai language, and methodology of teaching Thai to Vietnamese learners Facts and figures of Thai language teaching in Vietnam are either scarcely reported to the public or not complete and updated enough To sum up, it is a pity that there has been no thorough research on the situation of teaching Thai in Vietnam when the two neighbouring countries are elevating their relationship in all aspects In such a context, as a teacher of Thai language to Vietnamese students, I feel an urge to conduct a study to find out what

the “Situation of Thai language teaching in Vietnamese universities” is like

1.2 Objectives of the study

This research paper aims to provide a comprehensive picture of:

The situation of Thai language teaching in Vietnamese universities

The difficulties and prospects of developing Thai language in Vietnam

1.3 Scope of the study

This study discusses the overall situation of Thai language teaching in formal system of Vietnamese universities, thus, short-term courses

are not investigated in this scope I focuses on

presenting general facts and figures about the

establishment and development of Thai language

programme, curriculum and teaching materials,

teaching staffs and students, difficulties to

overcome and opportunities to develop the

programme

I have surveyed seven Vietnamese universities

(as named previously) which run Thai language or

Thai studies programmes in which Thai is taught

either as a major or a minor Due to time constrain,

the issue is weighed in teachers’ perspective only

but not administration or students’ point of view

2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Data collection methods

This study aims to answer two questions: (1)

How is the situation of Thai language teaching in

Vietnam? And (2) What are the prospects to

develop Thai language teaching in Vietnam?

In order to answer these questions, I chose both

quantitative and qualitative methods in the form of

interviews and a questionnaire survey The reason

for utilizing both methods is that beside numerical

statistics about the situation obtained from the

questionnaire, the interviews can provide more

in-depth information and opinions on the subject

2.2 Participants

Participants in the research survey included

seven Vietnamese instructors who teach Thai in

all the seven universities running Thai language

programmes throughout Vietnam

This may sound too small for a questionnaire

population; however, considering the study

objectives, this number is fairly reasonable As the

questionnaire investigated general facts and

figures of Thai language teaching situation, one

representative of the university teaching staff

could provide all the information needed Between

Vietnamese experienced teachers, who have been

teaching Thai language in those universities from

the beginning, and Thai newly-graduated

volunteers, who come to teach in Vietnam for

only one year, the former surely understand the situation better than the latter

I selected one experienced senior Vietnamese teacher from each university to respond to the questionnaire survey These same seven participants were subsequently interviewed for more insightful data of Thai language teaching curriculums in Vietnamese universities

2.3 Research instruments

As the seven universities are located in three different cities of Vietnam, the questionnaires were e-mailed to the respondents, while interviews were conducted on the phone

The questionnaire consisted of two main parts The first part inquired general information about the participants The second part contained multiple-choice questions of six issues about the situation of Thai language teaching, investigating statistics on curriculums and teaching materials, academic staffs, quantity of students, international collaboration, etc In order to avoid restriction of information contributed by the participants, almost all questions were open-ended, leaving room for the teachers to express further explanation for their answers

Qualitative interviews were then conducted with the same population for further description of how Thai language programme was developed in each university, and for their varied opinions about the difficulties and future of Thai language teaching in Vietnam With three questions prepared prior to the interview, the interviewer kept the conversation in focus, but allowed certain flexibility and created friendly atmosphere so that interviewees felt relaxed and motivated to share their ideas

3 RESULTS & DISCUSSION 3.1 The establishment and growth of the Thai language programme

Figure 1 demonstrates the establishment and development of Thai language programme in the seven universities

Figure 1: The establishment and development of Thai language programme

According to the interview findings, the first

university to open Thai language programme was

the Military University of Foreign Language,

which later joined with two other officer school

and comprised Military Science Academy (MSA)

Thai language was taught right at the

establishment of the university in 1982 along with

a few others This fact indicates Thai as an

important neighbouring language, in the

Vietnamese army’s view Another university

which started to teach Thai quite early in 2000 was

University of Social Sciences and Humanities,

within Vietnam National University, Hanoi The

curriculum was previously part of the Southeast

Asian Studies, and has been developed into a

Bachelor Programme of Thai Studies since 2012

A significant milestone of Thai language

teaching in Vietnam came when TICA, in

collaboration with two ministries of Vietnam,

launched the Project of Developing Thai language

Programme in Vietnamese universities The Thai

language programme under the sponsorship of

TICA, was first opened in 1996 in USSH HCM,

then expanded to HUFLIT and ULIS Hanoi in

2001, to CFL Danang in 2005 and finally to

HANU in 2009

The development of Thai language

programmes in Vietnamese universities is not

always smooth USSH HCM in 1998 and 2001

and CFL Danang from 2008 to 2010 failed to recruit enough students to maintain the programme HUFLIT faced the problem of lacking students since 2011 when the university changed its curriculum structure and closed the programme

in June 2014

In spite of some difficulties and uncertainties at times, Thai language programmes in Vietnam on the whole continues to move forward with many development plans

3.2 Curriculum

Thai language programmes in Vietnamese universities vary in types and lengths of the curriculum, which can be summarised and compared in Table 1

Three universities offering Bachelor degrees in Thai are USSH Hanoi, USSH HCM and CFL Danang The undergraduate programme of CFL Danang, as a college of foreign languages, contains courses on linguistics and language skills Thai language is also the medium in courses about the country such as Thai studies and Thai literature In order to earn the degree, a Danang full-time student is expected to complete courses

of 133 credits, of which courses in Thai account for 98 credits Meanwhile, the two USSHs in Hanoi and Hochiminh City include their Thai Studies Programme in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty of Oriental

HUFLIT

1982

1993

2000

2001

2009

2005

2014

1998 2001

2008-2010

Studies According to a standard curriculum

applied to all programmes in the faculty, students

are to take compulsory courses in the learners’

mother tongue, i.e Vietnamese in history, politics

and economy of Southeast Asian countries with an

emphasis on Thailand Apart from such foundational courses, Thai language is considered

a major portion getting 60 credits of the programmes throughout four years of study

University MSA USSH HCM USSH Hanoi HUFLIT Hanoi ULIS Danang CFL HANU

tttty

e Bachelor

Degree

 Thai studies

 Thai studies

 Thai language Minor subject

(Selective

foreign

language)

Certificate 

llllen

4 years



60 credits



60 credits



98 credits appox.300

hours/ 20

credits



2 semesters



4 semesters Other

Table 1: Thai language curriculum in Vietnamese universities

Unlike the above three universities, ULIS

Hanoi and HANU teach Thai as a selective minor

Their students from language departments are

required to learn a second foreign language

besides their major and Thai is amongst the

languages offered The programme consists of 300

class hours for the whole course, equivalent to 20

credits Nevertheless, length of the curriculums in

the two universities is not the same The Thai

language programme in ULIS Hanoi spans for

four semesters whereas HANU condenses the

curriculum into two semesters of the third year

Also teaching Thai as a selective foreign language,

HUFLIT differs from ULIS and HANU in length

and credit account of the curriculum The

programme counts for 9 credits in 3 semesters and

starts at the second semester of the first year The

number of credits of Thai language course as a

minor is small, and the student performance is

assessed holistically As a consequence, this

curriculum is not clearly divided into separate

courses but class hours are basically skill-based

and topic-based Moreover, Thai culture is integrated into the language content, skill practice, and in cultural activities held in special occasions The Thai language programme of MSA is a particular case Learners there are given a certificate when they finish the course in 18 months or three semesters, then start to work as interpreters right away The curriculum wholly focuses on building their language skills at the same time with practising military training so that students can serve as translating officers after graduation

3.3 Teaching materials

HCM

USSH Hanoi HUFLIT

ULIS Hanoi

CFL Danang HANU

Self-designed, based

Self-designed, based

Supplementary

Table 2: Origin of curriculum and teaching materials

There is certain correlation between how the

curriculum was designed and what type of

curriculum it is If referring back to the preceding

table 1 and table 2, we can see that both USSH

HCM and CFL Danang, which run undergraduate

programmes in Thai, designed their own

curriculum based on curriculums of the same

discipline in Thai universities On the other hand,

non-degree programmes which teach Thai as a

minor or a certificate programme like in MSA,

HUFLIT or HANU barely follow a full Thai

curriculum Instead, academic staffs there

designed their own curriculum as described before

in this section

As for teaching materials, the choice depends on

teachers’ point of view about the suitability of Thai textbooks to Vietnamese learners 100% of interviewees shared a common opinion that textbooks written by Thai authors primarily target Thai language learning in Thailand, thus, barely matched the teaching conducted in another country The solution to such problem of two in seven surveyed teachers is developing their own coursebook The other five also design their own textbook, but import relevant part of Thai textbooks at the same time Nearly half of the questionnaire respondents also prepare supplementary materials for their language classes

to remedy the shortcomings of the textbooks

3.4 Teaching staff

Figure 2: Current teaching staff (2014) University

Teacher

0 1 2 3

MSA USSH HCM

USSH Hanoi

HUFLIT ULIS

Hanoi

CLF Danang

HanU

Vietnamese teacher, BA Vietnamese teacher, MA Thai volunteer teacher

The survey shows that the number of teachers

is rather small in all universities ranging from one

to four This situation definitely means a lack of

human resources in the discipline in general, and

in the three Bachelor programmes in particular

HUFLIT and ULIS Hanoi employ only one

teacher each, given the fact that Thai language is

selective subject there In two other universities -

MSA and HANU, which plan to upgrade their

programmes soon, each has three teachers

Besides, the above chart also presents Thai

language teachers’ nationality and qualification

Of 17 teachers in total, a large portion are

Vietnamese (83%), among which nine obtained

their Master’s degree in Thailand (53%) and five

did their Bachelor in Vietnam (30%) The other

three are Thai university graduates who volunteer

to go teaching Thai in Vietnam (17%) These

questionnaire results prove that teaching staff in the seven universities are properly qualified This

is the second generation of Thai teaching staff in Vietnam since 2003 when teaching staff are Vietnamese qualified teachers after they came back Vietnam from winning Master’s degree in Thailand In the initial phase, Thai professors from Department of Thai and East Asian languages, Faculty of Humanities, Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) were invited

to teach in Vietnam on the basis of yearly rotation Though Thai experts are no longer sent to Vietnamese universities, students have access to native speakers such as voluntary teachers who are Thai newly-graduated bachelors and intern students majored in Thai language

3.5 Students

Time of

applying

Before entrance exam

Semester1, year 1

Semester1, year 1

Semester2, year 1

Semester1, year 1

Before entrance exam

Semester1, year 3

Requirement

of applicant

Students majored in SEAs

Students majored in SEAs

Students majored in Chinese, Japanese &

Korean

Students majored in English

none

Students majored in any of 11 languages

Requirement

of applicant

quantity 30 20 20 not limited not limited 30-35 not limited

Table 3: Application for Thai language Programme

As indicated in Table 3, any students of MSA

(certificate programme) and CFL Danang

(bachelor degree) can apply to learn Thai

language on the condition that they will pass the

entrance examination to the university Another

two universities, both USSH HCM and USSH

Hanoi, allow first-year students in the Department

of Southeast Asian Studies to choose to learn

either Indonesian or Thai language for their

Bachelor degree The decision to adopt which

language to study during four years is made in

advance by almost all students Unlikely, students

of HUFLIT, ULIS Hanoi and HANU have to select a second foreign language as a compulsory minor subject in their curriculum and Thai is among many options for them to register Table 3 also indicates which semester they are to register

to start their Thai language courses

Presented in Table 4 below are how frequently the Thai language Programme in each university opens and the tendency of its student enrolment over the past years

University MSA USSH HCM USSH Hanoi HUFLIT Hanoi ULIS Danang CFL HANU

Ups and

Decrease

Other

noted

facts

too few enrolment to open in

1998, 2001

not open for enrolment since 2014

open every 2 years 2003-

2010

too few enrolment to open in 2008-

2010

Table 4: Frequency and tendency of student enrolment

Although Thai language programmes in all

seven universities recruit students as frequently as

every year, the number of registered students

tends to rise and fall unsteadily in five of seven

institutions: Applicants to Thai language

programme at USSH HCM range unstably from

16 to 23 students each year, USSH Hanoi 15-20/

year, ULIS Hanoi 20-30/ year and CFL Danang

20-25/ year Only one interviewee from HANU

reported a continual increase in their enrolling

students in their past five years and a double in number three years ago At this point, however, it

is not wise to draw conclusions about the success

of Thai language programmes at the seven universities based on the number of enrolment because of two important factors: different programme requirements and the number of students in each university allowed to take the courses (see Table 3)

Another essential survey finding is the

percentage of Thai language students who can

find a job related to their study after graduation as shown in Figure 3 The proportion of bachelors of

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

HCM

USSH Hanoi

ULIS Hanoi HANU

Figure 3: Percentage of graduates that can find

a job using Thai language

Thai studies from USSH HCM and USSH Hanoi

who succeed in finding jobs where Thai language

is needed is really high: 80% from the former and

60% from the latter This is believed to be one

crucial reason that motivates Vietnamese students

to enroll in their Thai courses

In contrast, such figures of ULIS Hanoi and

HANU are quite low, the reasons for which is

easy to understand Not many graduates are

competent and interested in their minor subject

enough to join the workforce using it About 5%

of ULIS students and 10% of HANU

undergraduates can find a job with Thai

employers in Vietnam and even in Thailand The

percentage is considered reasonable and even

positive in this regard

Popular job positions that Thai speaking

students are employed are interpreter, translator,

tourist guide, secretary, assistant, personnel staff

and salesman

3.6 Cooperation with Thai partners

The seven universities of Vietnam that provide

Thai language programmes have been

collaborating with many Thai partners of different

sectors The most important partner that USSH

HCM, HUFLIT, ULIS Hanoi, CFL Danang and

HANU would immediately mention must be the

Thailand’s International Cooperation Agency,

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has been

supporting them in launching and running Thai

language programmes for the past 20 years

Others are Thai government offices in Vietnam

including the Royal Thai Embassy in Hanoi and

General Consulate in Hochiminh City together

with their agencies like Tourism Authority of

Thailand and Thai Trade Center Besides, Thai

businesses have a close connection with the Thai

language programme like SCG, CP Group and

Srithai Company and other SMEs which host

student-interns and provide book donation as well

as guest speakers Last but not least, Thai

universities are direct academic partners of the

seven Vietnam’s institutions They pay frequent

visits to Vietnamese universities and a number of Memorandums of Understanding have been signed by the two sides Collaborative activities varies from sending Thai-majored students to do their internship (teaching Thai), conducting research, guest teachers, teacher and student exchange, etc

From my observation, compliments should go

to the Thai government agencies, companies and universities for actively seeking partners, establishing cooperation and promoting exchange activities On the other hand, it is necessary to consider a gap in financial and academic resources between the two sides that results in fewer initiations from Vietnam, which hopefully will change in the future

3.7 Difficulties

Firstly, the teachers from USSH Hanoi and CFL Danang are concerned that jobs for graduates that require their Thai knowledge and skills are relatively scarce in the two cities This reality definitely has impacted students’ attitude and motivation in applying for Thai language and explains why the number of applicants overall is unsustainable The second reason adding up to students’ disinterest in Thai language is the lack of chances to communicate with native speakers, which comes from the reality that the number of Thai expatriates permanently residing in Hanoi is still fairly small One common problem they all face is the lack of teaching staff, which results in workload and little time to improve professional knowledge and skills Moreover, some interviewees expected stronger support from the university managerial board Lastly, many interviewees encounter the same problem of suitable textbooks and teaching materials scarcity Consequently, Vietnamese teachers have to modify these authentic materials to suit their learners and teaching contexts, or to design their own textbooks, which is very time and labour-consuming

3.8 Prospects

Broadly speaking, bilateral relations between

Thailand and Vietnam have been consolidated a

great deal in recent years, creating favourable

conditions for Thai language programmes in

Vietnam Regional stronger connection in the

ASEAN Community framework also discloses

more promising future for language teaching and

learning Obviously, learning ASEAN’s

language(s) other than the mother tongue will play

a very vital role for the future workforce

In such favourable context, the teacher from

CFL Danang hoped for more sustainable

development of Thai language programmes in

Vietnam Both USSH HCM and USSH Hanoi

instructors looked forward to more impressive

growth of their Bachelor degree programme so

that a Department of Thai Studies can soon be

founded MSA is working on the final preparation

to upgrade its Thai language programme from the

currently certificate programme of 18 months into

a 24-month Diploma course Meanwhile, HANU,

which teaches Thai as a selective language for the

time being, plans to launch a Bachelor degree

programme of Thai language in the next two years

These plans when turned to reality will be

absolutely good news for the discipline

4 CONCLUSION

This study’s objective is to describe and

analyse the situation of Thai language teaching in

Vietnamese universities through a questionnaire

survey and interviews of seven Thai language

teachers in MSA, USSH HCM, USSH Hanoi,

HUFLIT, ULIS Hanoi, CFL Danang and HANU

In general, the situation of Thai language

teaching in Vietnam is a very diverse picture No

unity exists among Thai language programmes of

the seven universities although there are

similarities here and there Findings from the

study give a detailed report of how Thai language

was introduced in Vietnam’s higher education, what characteristics the curriculum, teaching materials, teachers and students have, to what extent cooperation with Thai partners is implemented, what difficulties and opportunities Thai language programme gets at present, and finally the prospects to develop the programmes in the future

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