Phương pháp giáo dục phản biện cho lớp học tiếng Anh ở các trường đại học Việt Nam

79Tạp chí Khoa học - Trường Đại học Quy Nhơn, 2020, 14(2), 79-86
Phương pháp giáo dục phản biện cho lớp học tiếng Anh 
ở các trường đại học Việt Nam
Đoàn Nguyễn Thị Lệ Hằng*, Đoàn Thị Thanh Hiếu
Khoa Ngoại ngữ, trường Đại học Quy Nhơn, Việt Nam
Ngày nhận bài: 03/03/2020; Ngày nhận đăng: 07/04/2020
TÓM TẮT
Với mục đích phát triển tư duy phản biện cho người học, gần đây phương pháp giáo dục phản biện đã phát 
triển mạnh trong lĩnh vực giáo dục ngoại ngữ toàn cầu. Tuy nhiên, ở Việt Nam, phương pháp này vẫn còn chưa 
được nhiều người biết đến và vẫn còn rất nhiều hoài nghi xung quanh tính khả thi của phương pháp này. Bài báo 
này sẽ tập trung khái quát những khái niệm và mục tiêu chủ yếu của phương pháp giáo dục phản biện, từ đó đưa ra 
lí do cho việc áp dụng tư duy phản biện vào việc dạy và học tiếng Anh ở các trường đại học Việt Nam.
Từ khóa: Dạy tiếng Anh, phương pháp giáo dục phản biện, tư duy phản biện.
*Tác giả liên hệ chính. 
Email: doannguyenthilehang@qnu.edu.vn
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80 Journal of Science - Quy Nhon University, 2020, 14(2), 79-86
Critical pedagogy for university English language classrooms
in Vietnam
Doan Nguyen Thi Le Hang*, Doan Thi Thanh Hieu
Foreign Language Department, Quy Nhon University, Vietnam
Received: 03/03/2020; Accepted: 07/04/2020 
ABSTRACT
Originally derived from critical thinking, critical pedagogy has rapidly emerged as a promising approach in 
language education worldwide. However, this method appears relatively novel and highly questionable in English 
language education in non-Western contexts like Vietnam. This paper, therefore, presents an overview of critical 
pedagogy as a language teaching approach and some arguments for the implementation of this approach to improve 
teaching and learning English as a foreign language in Vietnam, especially in tertiary classrooms.
Keywords: critical thinking, critical pedagogy, English as a foreign language, English language education
*Corresponding author. 
Email: doannguyenthilehang@qnu.edu.vn
1. INTRODUCTION
English as a foreign language (EFL) has been 
significantly increasing in importance in Vietnam 
for the past few decades. Teaching English 
has come into the center focus in the national 
educational policy since this country sped up its 
integration into the world market in 2007. As an 
international language, English is considered as 
a bridge to the world outside. English is taught at 
all educational levels, and a certificate in English 
proficiency is required for all graduates.
Nevertheless, English teaching and 
learning in Vietnam, especially at the tertiary 
level is not qualified as expected.1 After 
over ten years of learning English at school, 
the majority of graduates are still unable to 
communicate effectively in English.2 This 
failure can be attributed to different factors such 
as the serious shortage of learning facilities, 
teacher-dominated classrooms, grammar-based 
testing and assessment, and a limited relevant 
curriculum in working for students from diverse 
socio-economic backgrounds.1 Among these, the 
curriculum in use appears to exert a profound 
impact. As a result, there is a strong need for a 
change in EFL teaching in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, researchers who are 
interested in meaningful and locally relevant 
curricula suggest critical pedagogy for an 
alternative approach in language teaching 
and learning.3 Taking learners’ voice as the 
center, critical pedagogy in EFL considers 
English language “as not simply a means of 
expression or communication but as a practice 
that constructs, and is constructed by, the ways 
language learners understand themselves, their 
social surroundings, their histories, and their 
possibilities for the future.”3
With this critical viewpoint in mind, this 
paper will argue that critical pedagogy could 
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serve as a solution for the current teaching 
situation in Vietnam. The paper will first present 
a brief description of critical pedagogy as a 
teaching approach in general and then in English 
language teaching in specific. The next two 
sections provide a review of research studies 
on the practicality and effectiveness of critical 
pedagogy in Asia and how this approach is 
compatible with a Vietnamese national project 
on EFL teaching. The paper will conclude 
with some implications to implement critical 
pedagogy for more improvements in English 
language education in Vietnam.
2. CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AS A TEACHING 
APPROACH
First proposed by Brazilian educator Paulo 
Freirein, critical pedagogy is based on the premise 
that the world is always full of contradictions, 
inequality and unfairly distributed power and 
privilege.4 Even educational institutions, which 
are generally expected to work on neutral ground, 
indeed have been long serving as contributors 
to transmission and reproduction of dominant 
ideologies that are out of date and thus do not 
reflect learners’ need in real life.5
Consequently, critical pedagogy attempts 
to develop students’ ability to think critically 
about their own problems so that they can act 
on it and improve their life. Accordingly, a 
meaningful curriculum should include students’ 
life situations as primary contents and take 
dialogue as the center of learning process to 
avoid the one-way transmission of knowledge.6 
Learners therefore can be empowered to act 
as agents for social changes.7 In other words, 
this approach to education aims to promote the 
learners’ life with a focus on action. 
Obviously, this approach is quite 
contradicted to the well-established teaching 
practices in many non - Western contexts, also 
called the banking model of education. This 
traditional model defines teaching merely as 
“transmission o ...  pedagogy, the mismatch between 
this Western approach and the sociocultural 
context in Asia may cast serious doubts on 
its implementation in Vietnam. As widely 
acknowledged, ELT in Asian countries such as 
Japan, Vietnam, China or Taiwan, etc. has long 
considered learners as passive recipients of 
knowledge, teachers as the center of all activities 
and authority in classrooms, and the banking 
model as the most effective approach. These 
mismatching features that have been documented 
to lead to the failure in implementing the 
communicative language teaching, another well-
known Western teaching approach.20 Despite 
these doubts, this approach, indeed, has been 
successfully put into practice in different Asian 
countries, especially at the tertiary level. 
Typically, in Iran the problem-posing 
approach of critical pedagogy was implemented 
in an EFL class by Sadeghi.11 His study aims 
to find out how this approach helps maintain 
discussions and develop students’ critical 
consciousness. Accordingly, his students 
were engaged in learning activities that could 
increase their awareness of social justice and 
their willingness to make more contribution to 
the society. After one semester, feedback from 
student participants show majority support for 
this approach and their strong preference for 
daily life topics raised by themselves and the 
teacher over decontextualized topics presented 
in the textbooks.
Working towards the same goal, Sekigawa 
and his colleagues studied three different groups 
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of EFL university students in Japan.21 They were 
nursing students, international students and those 
majoring in leadership. The main aims of the study 
are both to improve students’ speaking skill and 
to encourage them to express their own opinions 
for a higher critical consciousness. Findings 
reveal that at first the participant students felt 
anxious about this newly - introduced teaching 
method due to their low English proficiency, but 
later they could convey their ideas in English 
effectively on topics related to their own 
problems.
Revealing the similar positive results, 
a study in Taiwan by Yang and Gamble used 
an experimental design with two freshman 
EFL classes to examine the practicality and 
effectiveness of activities enhancing critical 
thinking.22 While the experimental group took 
part in debates or peer critiques, the control 
group was involved in familiar activities such 
as group presentations and writing process. Data 
were collected from General English Proficiency 
Tests and content-based achievement tests 
for both groups as well as group projects and 
attitudinal questionnaires for the experimental 
group. Analyzing all the data shows that the 
experimental group outperformed the control 
group in both tests and demonstrated a higher 
critical-thinking skill.
More recently, Kuo designed a critical 
thinking activity for non-English majors in 
Taiwan based on the theory of critical literacy.23 
The activity engaged students in using a picture 
book in different learning tasks and then 
evaluating it from different perspectives. In 
order to clarify the effectiveness of this activity, 
the researcher analyzed data from classroom 
observation notes, participants’ reflection papers 
and assignments as well as follow-up interviews. 
Results indicate that learners acquired critical 
competence when investigating multiple 
perspectives and re-examining their real world.
It can be seen from these studies that 
critical pedagogy has proved practicality and 
efficacy in various ELT contexts for higher 
education in Asia. Although similar research 
remains hard to locate in literature in Vietnam, 
these studies have provided support for critical 
pedagogy implementation there given its 
comparable learning culture. Another favorable 
condition can result from the correspondence 
between critical pedagogy and the goals of 
the National Foreign Language Education 
Project launched by the Vietnamese Ministry of 
Education and Training.
5. CRITICAL PEDAGOGY AND THE 
NATIONAL FOREIGN LANGUAGE 
PROJECT IN VIETNAM
In an attempt to improve English language 
proficiency in Vietnam, a project called National 
Foreign Language Education Project was set up 
in 2008 in order to renovate the teaching and 
learning of foreign languages within the national 
educational system. The project mainly aims to 
enable Vietnamese university students to reach a 
globally recognized level of English language.24 
Noticeably, this national project has some targets 
for the 2017 - 2025 period in accordance with 
critical pedagogy.
Specifically, the ultimate goal of this 
project is to explore new approaches to make 
ELT more relevant, efficient and productive 
and to satisfy a variety of learners’ needs.24 As 
previously mentioned, critical pedagogy views 
learning as a contextualized and personalized 
process, so the teaching curriculum and materials 
in use have to be relevant to the target students to 
provide meaningful education.10
Another criterion of the target teaching 
approach in the Project is its capability to 
enable language learners to reflect students’ 
own values and prior learning experiences.24 
Again, these aims are compatible with an 
important orientation of critical EFL pedagogy 
that considers learning as a means to tap on 
students’ previous knowledge and to maintain 
their identity as well as to respect their culture.10
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Last but not least, the desired teaching 
approach has to enhance students’ autonomy, 
creativity and critical thinking.24 These are 
central concepts of critical pedagogy as it states 
learning is based on critical dialogue and learners 
actively taking part in constructing knowledge.
As can be seen above, critical pedagogy 
is not in conflict with the development goals 
of language education in Vietnam. Therefore, 
critical pedagogy appears to be more situated to 
implement in ELT in Vietnam than ever before.
6. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CRITICAL 
PEDAGOGY IMPLEMENTATION IN EFL 
CLASSROOMS IN VIETNAM
In the following section are some research-driven 
implications for EFL teachers and educators for 
more effective and successful implementation of 
critical pedagogy in EFL classrooms in Vietnam.
Firstly, critical pedagogy should be 
included in EFL teacher education programs. 
According to Canagarajah, teachers have to 
be critical thinkers and know how to facilitate 
learning rather than merely transmit content 
knowledge.10 However, this mission is no doubt 
very challenging on the part of teachers since they 
have long acted as passive learners and received 
no training on the problem-posing teaching 
model. Indeed, Rashidi and Mozaffari provided 
evidence for EFL teachers’ professional concerns 
as the main reasons for their reluctance in critical 
pedagogy implementation.19 Therefore, training 
courses in critical pedagogy should be first 
offered in order to engage teachers in this newly-
introduced approach.
Secondly, using Vietnamese should be 
allowed in low-level EFL classes. This practice 
can not only engage students effectively in 
critical dialogue but also assist their acquisition 
of a foreign language and maintain their cultural 
identity.8
Thirdly, semi-negotiated syllabus should 
be employed at the initial implementation 
stages. According to Clarke, the negotiated 
syllabus “allows full learner participation in 
selection of content, mode of working, route of 
working, assessment, and so on”.25 This practice 
can help shorten the power distance between 
teachers and students and promote learner-
centered classrooms, which are the heart of 
critical pedagogy. However, it seems to be so 
challenging to use the full negotiated syllabus 
in the Vietnamese context given long-existing 
institutional constraints, traditional beliefs and 
the importance of exams. Therefore, it may be 
more feasible to use the semi-negotiated syllabus 
at the tertiary level in which students can choose 
their topics, supplementary learning materials or 
the mode of mid-term assessment.
Last but not least, codes should be used to 
promote critical thinking and dialogue. According 
to Wallerstein, codes are “concrete physical 
expressions that represent all of the aspects of a 
theme surrounding a problem”.17 They can take 
the forms of photographs, stories, movies, songs, 
etc. Teachers can use codes to engage students in 
critical dialogue where they “name the problem, 
understand how it applies to them, determine the 
causes of the problem, generalize to others, and 
finally, suggest alternatives or solutions to the 
problem”.17 Accordingly, students can increase 
their critical thinking, which is the target of 
critical pedagogy.
7. CONCLUSIONS
Evidently, critical pedagogy appears to be a viable 
ELT method that could be exploited in Vietnam. 
This approach would not only make ELT in 
Vietnam more relevant to language learners and 
hopefully improve their language proficiency 
but also foster students’ awareness of problems 
arising in their daily life. Critical pedagogy is 
feasible in Vietnam because it has been realized 
in similar English teaching contexts in Asia, and 
it is in accordance with the aims of the current 
national project on foreign language education. 
These aims can be achieved by offering training 
courses and using the negotiated syllabus, 
codes and the native language to assist English 
language teaching and learning in university 
classrooms. 
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