Reflection of Week 3

WHICH NORM SHOULD A VIETNMESE LECTURER OF ENGLISH FOLLOW?

            When I first became a lecturer of English at Hue University in 1996, this question has embedded me. It has been years in my teaching life but I am still examining to look for the answer for this big question.

In the world of Englishes as Kachu’s analysis, Vietnam is in the expanding circle which makes many barriers for the lecturers of English because we do not know which norm to follow: American English (AE) or British English (BE). This leads to the problem that my students also confuse in their English usage and studying. For the language policy, our university does not have any clear instructions that the teachers can follow. Some thus use AE while others implement BE in their classroom. And there is still controversial debate among them for choosing the appropriate norm for the Vietnamese students studying English as EFL. The lecturers are not empowered to choose the appropriate norm for themselves. In other words, we do not have a Standard English to follow in our language teaching.

            From my perspective of a Vietnamese lecturer of English, teaching American English or British English does not matter. The matter is that it has to be correct in terms of grammar. Even until now, I still can’t answer the question that American English or British English is better for Vietnamese students or learners. It has to be dependent on the purpose and context in which the language users could decide which norm they should follow. They, for instance, want to work for an American Company; they had better use AE when taking to the US interviewer. On the contrary, if an applicant wants to apply for his/er Master degree in Oxford University, s/he should use BE for a little bit easier to be accepted to the university.