Teaching general english in the development of artificial intelligence

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TEACHING GENERAL ENGLISH IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 
TS. Hoàng Công Bình 
 Bộ môn: Biên Phiên Dịch 
Tóm tắt: Ngày nay tiếng Anh là ngôn ngữ giao tiếp toàn cầu, do đó công tác giảng dạy 
tiếng Anh, đặc biệt là tiếng Anh không chuyên trong các trường Đại học, là một mắt xích 
không thể tồn tại bên ngoài quá trình toàn cầu hóa và quốc tế hóa. Trong bài viết này, 
chúng tôi cung cấp cái nhìn tổng thể về vị thế của người sử dụng tiếng Anh trong việc thúc 
đấy công tác giảng dạy ngoại ngữ nhằm phục vụ nền kinh tế toàn cầu; Để bắt kịp với tiến 
trình hội nhập và toàn cầu hóa, việc giảng dạy tiếng Anh ở các trường Đại học vẫn phải 
đối mặt với nhiều cơ hội và thách thức nhất định; Sự phát triển của công nghệ thông tin 
đã ảnh hưởng tích cực và phần nào định hình cho việc giảng dạy tiếng Anh trong bối cảnh 
hiện tại. 
Abstract: English is presently used as a global language or working language; thus, ELT, 
particularly general English in institutions, is a chained link that can not be isolated from 
globalization and internationalization. In this article, some issue will be deeply discussed 
as follows: the status of English users has stimulated ELT in such a way of serving the 
global economy; To catch up with the pace of integration and globalization, ELT in 
institutions has definitely faced a variety of opportunities and multiple challenges; The 
emmergence of ICT has positively affected and partly shaped the trend in ELT in the 
current context. 
I. INTRODUCTION 
Under the trend of globalization and development in science and technology derived 
from free trade, technology transfer and cultural-political exchange, teaching and learning 
foreign language, more than ever, is extremely important to all countries in the world. 
Previously, foreign language teaching and learning at higher education level included 
Russian, French, English, Chinese and Russian, of which Russian is the dominant 
language. Since 1986, Vietnam has shifted from planned economy to a market economy, 
which is synonymous with development of English across the country. The diplomatic 
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success in 1990s has created a "fever" of English learning in Vietnam [7]. By 2000, in high 
schools, 98% of students chose English as a foreign language [13]. At tertiary level, English 
of 4 main foreign languages was the choice of over 90% of students [7]. At present, 
Vietnam belongs to the official members of the WTO and TTP, which produces lots of 
opportunity and challenge for ELT, especially at tertiary level. The paper will indicate the 
prospective trend in ELT by analysing status of English speakers and evaluating the current 
situation of ELT at universities. 
II. STATUS OF ENGLISH USERS 
Taking a close look at integration process, it can be seen that the stream of 
globalization does not only flow in one way - from developed countries to the rests of the 
world, but also vice versa - from developing countries to developed ones. For example, 
Apple, Microsoft, McDonalds do spread from the US to other parts of the world. However, 
Toyota and Sony from Japan, Kung-fu and Alibaba from China or Tango from Argentina 
also spread to America and Western countries. Once integration and globalization 
intensively and extensively affect all aspects of the world’s society, population of each 
country will be global citizens. The stereotypes and norms of global citizens must achieve 
the “benchmark” imposed by global economy. That is knowledge or digital economy. 
In relation to ELT, there is a bunch of variations of English: English is used in the 
US, India, Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Australia, so English today can be 
written as " Englishes ". According Graddol [4], the diversity of English variations can be 
grouped into three main categories and illustrated by different areas. In the first area, 
English is used as mother tongue or first language. According Crystal [1], the number of 
people who speak English as a native language was estimated to reach 375 million people 
- from Canada, the US, Australia, Britain and some other countries. The second area covers 
the users of English as a second language, which reaches to about 375 million people from 
Singapore, Philippines, Nigeria, and some other countries. In the third area, English is used 
as a foreign language such as in China, France, Japan, and Vietnam, accounted for 1 billion 
people. Due to the impact of population growth and immigation crisis, the number of 
English speakers will chronologically change. 
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Under the shift of global context, ELT has also emerged many challenges and 
opportunities for the third countries. Consequently, the requirement of English proficiency 
urged many countries to abruptly apply English as a medium of instruction at elementary 
level. To illustrate, let’s see these examples. In South Korea, English is taught from primary 
level in 1982 [6]. Indonesia started in 1994 and Taiwan in 2002 [15]. In Vietnam, from 
2010-2011, English was partly applied to the pilot curriculum from grade 3 in HCM city 
and Hanoi [8]. 
Apart from population growth and immigration crisis, ELT at primary level also 
contributes to a worldwide shift in proportion of English speakers and their English 
proficiency. Those who use English as a second language tend to use it as a native one and 
in the same way, people speaking English as a foreign language in non-English speaking 
countries tend to upgrade their English proficiency to status of second language speakers. 
This involves in a global shift of the speakers’ language competence from a lower level to 
another higher level. 
III. THE REALITY OF ELT AT UNIVERSIRTIES 
 Before the issue of Foreign Language Competency Framework for Vietnam, ELT 
faced a variety of shortcomings and constraints affecting the quality of training. One of the 
remarkable causes was that learners’ proficiency was not identifed and allocated for each 
level from bachelor to doctorate [4]. 
At present, most universities has currently implemented the National Foreign 
Language 2020 Project and the goal of this project is to renovate language teaching and 
learning in order to create a society with competent language users for communication, 
study and work in integrated environment. Up to now, there has not been any studies on 
the results of ELT at tertiary level under the 2020 Project. 
In regard to the reality of ESP teaching, it has produced many difficulties and 
challenges related to learners, teachers, methodology, materials, testing and assessment. 
The movement of teaching and learning ESP initiated inVietnam from the 1980s, but most 
universities partly succeeded in teaching English for professional purposes like English for 
Tourism, Commerce, Bussiness, Reception and so on [4]. Undoubtedly, a controversial 
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issue that has no answer is "Who teaches ESP?”. Regardless of that controversy, ESP has 
been maintained and taught under three different perspectives. 
First, traditional view saying that studies of languages are usually classified as 
humanities. For that reason, language teachers often lack specialized knowledge and are 
not qualified to solve science subjects. Moreover, subject specialist who has adequate 
mastery of English is more adventageous than ELT teacher. 
The second view is that in ESP course, it is the language that must be taught and not 
the subject matter. Language teaching itself is a kind of science and has its own knowledge 
and principles such as teaching method, knowledge of linguistics, language acquisition 
theory, phonetics, syntax etc. Definitely, ELT teacher is more qualified to be an ESP 
practictioner. 
The third perspective is that ESP teaching must involve a close liaison between ELT 
teacher and subject specialist. 
However, according to English Proficiency Index 2015 reported by Institution of 
International Language, Vietnam ranked 31 out of 72 countries. English proficiency score 
of Vietnam is 54.06 and the highest one belongs to Sweden (70.94). In Asia, Vietnam 
ranked 7th behind Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, India, Korea and Hong Kong. 
Rank Country Score 
1 Singapore 63,52 
2 Malaysia 60,70 
3 Philippines 60,33 
4 India 57,30 
5 Korea 54,87 
6 Hong Kong 54,29 
7 Vietnam 54,06 
8 Indonesia 52,94 
9 Taiwan 52, 82 
10 Japan 51,62 
 ( EF – EPI. 2015) [www.ef.com.vn/epi/] 
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If making a comparision between the nationwide regions, English proficiency in the 
Southeast region is (56.08), the Red River Delta (53.56) and the South-central provinces 
(48.97). Although English proficiency of Vietnam belongs to moderate ranking group, but 
in South Central Provinces, that score (48.97) is among the low rangking ones. 
IV. THE CURRENT TREND IN ELT 
The field of language education is rapidly changing and traditional notions of 
education are giving away to more innovative ways of thinking about how we learn, teach 
and acquire languages. 
If English as a language major is for those who deeply study in the field of language, 
General English, English for Specific Purposes and English as a medium instuction have 
more extensive and diverse stakeholders in Economics, Engineering, Natural Sciences and 
Social Sciences. The National Foreign Language Project targets a remarkable advance in 
the improvement of foreign language proficiency for the Vietnamese during the period 
from now to 2020. 
For tertiary education, graduates from university should reach level 3 (B1 or B2). 
To achieve this goal, both teachers and learners need to distinguish between knowledge 
and skills in language acquisition. Nowadays, development of information technology has 
great influence on ELT because learners are now tech-savvy students. Once resources and 
information are at finger tips, to master a language will not be a hard job for anyone as it 
was. Although the CLT method and integrated skills have been applied in language 
teaching, the allocation for language skills in ELT process has not taken into account in. 
According Renukadevi [12], in process of language acquisition, learner can acquire 45% 
from listening activities, 30% from speaking, 15% from reading and 10% from writing. 
Listening and reading comprehension, thus, outweight other skills, which means the input 
(receptive skills) is more important and indispensable than the output (productive skills) in 
language acquisition. Renukadevi [12] states that listening comprehension is the "macro" 
skill in learning a language. Dunkel (1991), Krashen (1995) and Rost (1993) regarded 
listening comprehension skill as a cornerstone to acquiring a second language [9]. Many 
studies have also proved that adults use 40-50% of time for communication, but to 
recognize the role of listening in language learning has been only found recently [11]. 
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There is no doubt that to speed up foreign language acquisition process, listening and 
speaking must be paid more concern than any other skills and ICT (Information and 
Comunication Technology) is the unique tool for implementation. We are living in digital 
era with the rapid development of AI (Artificial intellgence), the application of ICT in 
leaning and teaching language at tertiary level is indispensible; therefore, E-learning and 
social media are the short–term solution at present. 
V. CONCLUSION 
Globalization and integration process have comprehensively taken place and 
directly impacted many fields of social life in all countries in the world. On the one hand, 
English is the main communicative medium enhancing and serving the globalization. On 
the other hand, the satus of English speakers as global citizens provides great opportunity 
and challenge as well to the field of English teaching. The emergence of ICT also 
contributes to new possibilities and opens a brilliant prospective in learning and teaching 
language. However, the existing limitations and challenges in ELT must be critically 
revaluated in order to make the right decisions, holding the pace with other countries in the 
region. 
VI. REFERENCES 
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