Learner autonomy in EFL studies in Vietnam: A discussion from socio-cultural perspective
2010
The popular philosophy of educational practices in Vietnam is more associated with absorbing and memorizing than experimenting and producing knowledge.
Communicative language teaching method and student-centered approach in second language training have not consistently been reported to be effective, given various situational problems such as big-size class, rigorous test-oriented system, and heavy learning workload.
A student can become passive if he/she is framed in a locally so-called well-disciplined environment; however, he/she can become active and more involved in a learning process if he/she is adequately encouraged to participate in.
Communicative language teaching method and student-centered approach in second language training have not consistently been reported to be effective, given various situational problems such as big-size class, rigorous test-oriented system, and heavy learning workload.
A student can become passive if he/she is framed in a locally so-called well-disciplined environment; however, he/she can become active and more involved in a learning process if he/she is adequately encouraged to participate in.
Dang, T. T. (2010). Learner autonomy in EFL studies in Vietnam: A discussion from socio-cultural perspective. English Language Teaching, 3(2), 3-9. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v3n2p3.
Learner autonomy has been identified as a complicated capacity that potentially has a great impact on personal growth and achievement. Different mediated attributes associated with situational, psychological, cultural and political aspects of this construct have been developed and examined to facilitate the promotion of this educational goal. Taking this into account, this paper adopts socio-cultural perspective to localize the situation of EFL learning in higher education in Vietnam. Personal reflections and part of the data generated from a large-scale project are extracted to illustrate a dilemma of the context where learner autonomy can be either fostered or hindered deliberately within various community constraints. The paper finishes with a discussion on the implementation of local learner autonomy promoting practices and puts forward some directions for further research.