Secondary school in Ho Chi Minh City begins teaching in English

From the second semester of the 2024-2025 school year, Minh Duc Secondary School, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City will officially allow Vietnamese teachers to start teaching math, natural science, history and geography in English.

Teachers and students of class 6/5 of Minh Duc Secondary School in an English math lesson "Three points on a straight line - Three points not on a straight line" - Photo: MY DUNG

The school had previously tested and evaluated English teaching activities in semester 1.

Exciting English lessons

On the afternoon of December 12, in class 6/5 of Minh Duc Secondary School, students had a very special lesson: a math lesson taught entirely in English by math teacher Truong Quoc An, who is also the homeroom teacher of the class. The lesson was called "Three collinear points and three noncollinear points".

The lesson begins with the teacher's introduction about the necessity of learning straight lines, some applications of straight lines in students' lives...

The teacher divides the class into six groups to facilitate communication and group work. The language used to lead the lesson, discuss, lecture, play games, ask and answer questions... by the teacher and students throughout the lesson is entirely in English.

Children play many games during the lesson such as: throwing balls into trays, juggling with table tennis with team spirit.

The lesson lasted for 45 minutes with lively interaction between teachers and students under the witness of the school's vice principal in charge of professional affairs and a number of teachers of math, English and some other subjects.

"I understand what the teacher is saying and also understand the math that the teacher teaches in English. This is really a fun class, I really like learning math in English like this" - Bui Lam Minh Khang, class 6/5, commented.

Talking about the process of having a math lesson taught in English like that, teacher Truong Quoc An said that preparing a lesson plan for a math lesson in English is a little more difficult than preparing a lesson plan for teaching math in Vietnamese.

"However, at university, I learned how to teach math in English, and since I was a high school student in Ho Chi Minh City who had studied English since primary school, preparing lesson plans and teaching in English did not cause much pressure. Therefore, I registered with the school to teach math in English to receive evaluation from the school and other colleagues," said Mr. Truong Quoc An.

The above lesson of Mr. Truong Quoc An is not the first lesson that he taught this subject in English. Before that, Mr. An taught many math lessons in English under the observation and evaluation of the school's board of directors.

During the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year, Mr. An teaches a math lesson in English every week for students in this class. Mr. An is also one of the teachers who taught math to Japanese students during an exchange with a Japanese high school when this school visited Minh Duc Secondary School last October.

Applicable from semester 2

Ms. Tran Thuy An, principal of Minh Duc Secondary School, said that through the school's assessment process, teachers who are assessed to be good at teaching subjects in English will be registered to teach in the second session from the second semester of the 2024-2025 school year. This has been approved by the school board.

"The school's assessment team in teaching subjects in English in the first semester assessed that some teachers were able to teach immediately. Therefore, in the second semester, the school began to apply teaching math, natural sciences, history and geography in English to some teachers who had passed the assessment on a voluntary basis.

The classes selected to teach subjects in English will be English intensive or regular classes, not integrated classes. The school wants to give students more opportunities to promote the English language, so they will be taught in English intensive or regular classes without students having to pay extra fees," Ms. An informed.

According to Ms. An, regarding the promotion of English as a second language in schools, the school will support training for teachers to improve their professional skills with a support level of no more than 10 million VND/course.

Open lesson

At Minh Duc Secondary School, when teachers register to teach subjects in English, even though they have passed the assessment process, these lessons are still open lessons. Accordingly, all teachers and school administrators can attend and give their opinions on the lesson.

Many subjects can be taught in English.

Mr. Tran Minh Thanh - Vice Principal in charge of professional affairs at Minh Duc Secondary School - said that in addition to Mr. An, the school also has a number of teachers who have been evaluated for teaching math, natural sciences, history and geography in English in the first semester and have been trained through exchange programs with schools in Singapore, Japan and China.

"In recent years, the school has had orientations and encouraged teachers to study and teach in English, so now the school has a relatively large team to start encouraging teachers to implement the program of teaching subjects in the school in English," said Mr. Thanh.

In fact, Minh Duc Secondary School has long created conditions for teachers to learn English teaching methods by sending teachers to some schools in Singapore, Japan, and China that teach subjects in English.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/truong-cap-2-o-tp-hcm-bat-dau-day-hoc-bang-tieng-anh-20241220230754866.htm