The Department of Language Skills is part of the Faculty of Foreign Languages. Our departmental community consists of 10 full-time members with a broad area of expertise and interests. Seven of us specialize in TESOL, one in Applied Linguistics, one in Japanese and one PhD student. Our skilled and motivated teachers are integral to providing positive teaching and learning outcomes for students. We offer undergraduate courses of language skills and linguistics to English-majored students of TESOL studies, Translation and Interpretation and Business English programs. These courses provide students with language background, practice opportunities and hands-on support that will enable them to gain a high level of competence in English. Also, students can enjoy a wide range of study activities during the training program through project-based learning and make use of a wide range of English clubs and competitions such as Spelling Bee, Public Speaking or English Camp, which aims to enhance their language learning experience. Through language skills and linguistics courses, we want to give our students the capacity to utilize the language they have acquired in contexts and at the same time foster their critical skills, presentation skills, problem-solving skill and teamwork collaboration in order to enable them to engage more in the academic world and in their lifelong learning.
First and foremost, the Listening and Speaking courses are designed for English-majored students to enable them to develop from the Pre-intermediate to Advanced level of English listening and speaking skills, or from level B1 to C1 in the CEFR accordingly. Listening is a very important skill in language acquisition of English and a prerequisite for oral communication. Good listening and speaking skills facilitate the development of reading and writing skills and better class-participation as well. Mastering these two skills requires frequent practice and exposure. Hence, with four courses scheduled in the first four semesters, upon their completion, students are expected to comprehend and master skills in listening such as listing for gist, listening for details with a wide variety of topics ranging from daily and familiar topics to less common issues and more academic contexts. A wide range of topics covered enables students to widen their lexical range to assist their listening-speaking activities and, most importantly, satisfies the demand of their future jobs. In speaking activities, students are invited to join in discussions about issues mentioned in the lectures. By doing this, students both dig deeper thoughts on their content knowledge to construct their academic and socio-economic values and develop their speaking skills. Last but not least, participating in learning activities enables students to develop and scrutinize skills such as problem-solving, team work, critical thinking or public speaking to succeed in their current academic path and later in their professional life.
Secondly, the Writing courses including Basic Writing, Academic and Critical Writing must be completed sequentially in the first three semesters aiming to enable English majors to develop from the Pre-intermediate to Upper-intermediate level of writing in English, or from level B1‑ to B2+ in the CEFR. The courses equip students with theory and practice in writing at different levels, ranging from basic to advance to sharpen their skills in academic writing. Accordingly, students, with the acquired skills and knowledge, are able to produce good sentences, well-structured paragraphs and effective academic essays, particularly critical essays. For students involved in the academic world, the ability to write critically has a profound effect on their ability to continue advanced courses such as Translation and Interpretation or to conduct secondary research and write academic papers, which is one of the most essential skills that every university student needs to develop. The Writing courses also foster students’ capability of independence in writing activities and teamwork collaboration through task-based learning.
Aligned with Writing courses, the Reading courses are offered to English majors in their first year. The primary focus of each course is to help students practice reading comprehension strategies at intermediate and upper-intermediate levels, using texts from a wide variety of academic themes, which consequently enables them to widen their academic vocabulary and critically examine the issues mentioned in the text. Additionally, students are given opportunities to develop reading fluency, increase their sight vocabulary, and boost their reading enjoyment through extensive reading. As a result, upon their completion, they are able to approach a wide range of materials using appropriate reading strategies, which is a vital skill for students not only in their academic life but also in their future career.
In addition to Language Skills courses, our department offers a wide choice of Linguistics courses from basic courses of Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax to advanced courses of Semantics and Pragmatics. These courses provide students with background knowledge and deeper understanding of internal structure of language for the sake of fostering students’ capability for language acquisition, language research and interpretation and translation so as to facilitate their learning quality and learning experience. Simultaneously, these courses sharpen students’ skills in analyzing and utilizing the language as well as equipping them with other employment skills.
Last but not least, the Japanese courses are designed for English majors as a second foreign language. They attempt to introduce students to a new language that is increasingly popular in addition to the global English language. Students will learn about Japanese and its culture, which are oriented by the Japan Foundation (JF) based on the JF Standard for Japanese Language Education (JF Standard) for the sake of using Japanese to communicate, understand and respect other cultures. Three consecutive Japanese courses are expected to help students reach level A1 of Japanese language according to the JF Japanese standard of education, which works as a base for contrastive linguistics and the systematic acquisition of Japanese language with the aim of lifelong learning. What is more, our campus is situated in the heart of Eastern Industrial Park of Ho Chi Minh City, where there are a large number of factories and companies run by Japanese industrialists. Therefore, the ability of using two foreign languages, English and Vietnamese, is surely a competitive advantage for our graduates.
