My classes in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at PDU

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Administrative Building

Everyone at the university seems to know everyone else, at least in this faculty at Pham Van Dong University. The new campus opened only 2 years ago. The administrative building is an imposing solid structure that communicates strength and stability positioned at the entrance of the campus. Three new buildings house classes in Foreign Languages, IT and Business. Two other buildings are dormitories for students who board at the university.

First Day in the Waiting Room, aka the Teachers Room.

The Faculty for Foreign Languages holds many of its classes in the G building. Between classes, teachers can take a short tea break in the Waiting Room.here's always a pot of green tea waiting to refresh ourselves before the next session meets.There I had a chance to meet some of my co-teachers. The talented teaching faculty in the Department of Foreign Languages have welcomed the visiting professors like me into their classrooms and the students we are working with are eager to learn and dedicated in their studies, and they are highly motivated to learn English given the career opportunities that being bilingual or trilingual offer.

Meeting my Colleagues

One morning in the Waiting Room I met Mrs. Mai, a fellow writing teacher who has probably shared very similar teaching experiences as mine. Mrs. Thanh Thuy, who teaches Phonetics and Office English, and I met there to review the textbooks she uses in her Phonetics and Office English classes and to talk about her curriculum. I also met and chatted with Mr. Viet who teaches Reading, and Ms. Thuy, who does oral English. I met another teacher Mr. Tham who teaches Oral English for the first time when I showed up at his class to co-teach. I wound up teaching his oral skills class for him the first day as he raced off to a meeting!

Ms. Thuy's Phonetics Class

Later in the week, I co-taught the phonetics class. The students in Mrs. Thanh Thuy's class were attentive, alert, and curious about the English syllable. The textbook is a classic by Peter Roach so it was a great review for me and I used the Celce-Murcia text on pronunciation to supplement the presentation. These students are in their 2nd year and some are studying English to be teachers, others to be translators, and others want to go into tourism. All are highly motivated to master the language -- that's refreshing.



Mrs. Mai's writing class was equally engaged as we began to explore culture through folktales. We read and talked about the beginning of a folktale about greed ... a prewriting activity that ended in students' writing their own end to the tale. In Mr. Tham's oral English class, I had the pleasure of being introduced to each of the students, one-by-one, and then reading a short bio of each student in the class to get to know them a little better. It's amazing how good the English proficiency of every student! My favorite class was Mr. Nghi's translation class -- students are 2nd year translation but they are quite good. I brought in a New York Times article on the price of gas in the States and individual students read and translated sections of the article -- I gave feedback on the English pronunciation and reading and Mr. Nghi provided feedback on the translations. That was exciting and I'm looking forward to working with this class this semester.

Prof Mai Dao's English Literature Classes

Prof. Mai Dao's English Lit classes on the Renaissance met on Saturday and Sunday -- w/ some student presentations that were phenomenal! I gave a short presentation on Shakespeare -- his bio, Hamlet, and a couple of sonnets! How I love teaching literature! It is food for the soul! On Sunday Prof. Mai Dao's class also brought in some treats to celebrate their work thus far! Sweets for the sweet! Tasty treats! What a great group of young graduate students who themselves are in-service teachers out on the front line teaching every day of the week in remote villages, some of them but working on the weekends to get their next credentials! Inspiring!

It's a pleasure and privilege to work with my colleagues, young and old, professors and inservice teachers who are studying as well as undergraduates who are just beginning their careers which will in some way involve English. To participate in this type of exchange is a gift -- I learn about the Vietnamese English language education system and the culture and they learn something about the English language, EFL pedagogy, and improve their ability to use the language in our exchange. It's a win-win situation, n'est-ce pas?

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Photos

Pham Van Dong University Quang Ngai City
Administrative Building