Rationale for the project

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Since the Sixth National Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party, however, the 
situation has changed dramatic
ally. The government’s “Đổi mới” (i.e. renovation) 
policy introduced in 1986 has definitely marked a new era for economic and socio-
political cooperation with the West. As a result, the decades that followed have 
witnessed a remarkable revival of English in the country. English language education 
began to experience explosive growth in the early 1990s and later on even replaced 
the teaching of Russian in most schools after the collapse of the former Soviet Union 
(Denham 1992). A MOET survey conducted in 2003 revealed that today up to 98.5% 
of Vietnamese secondary school students studied English as a foreign language 
(Hoang, Nguyen and Hoang 2006). This figure is a plain indicator of the renewed 
status of English as the most important foreign language for a majority of 
Vietnamese students. 
Today English is taught to school children from Grade 6 (aged 11) through to Grade 
12 (aged 18). In some primary schools in large cities, English is even taught from 
Grade 3 (aged 8). However, before 2003 foreign language teaching began only in 
Grade 10 (aged 16) in many schools in rural and remote areas. As a result, before 
MOET launched the new, uniform textbook project in 2002, there existed at least 
two different sets of English textbooks for upper secondary school students.
The first set of textbooks, unofficially called “Sách Ti
ếng Anh hệ ba năm” (i.e. the three 
book series) were intended for students who began to learn English in Grade 10. It 
consisted of English 10, English 11 and English 12. The second set of textbooks, 

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unofficially called “Sách Ti
ếng Anh hệ bảy năm” (i.e. the seven book series) were 
intended for students who began to learn English in Grade 6. It consisted of English 6
through to English 12.
Both sets were produced by Vietnamese authors with funding from MOET. The first 
set was completed in the early 1980s and the second set was completed in the early 
1990s. They both followed a traditional approach to foreign language teaching and 
drew heavily on structural syllabi. The difference between them is while the first set 
placed more emphasis on oral skills development, the second set attached more 
importance to grammar and reading skills development (Hoang et al 2006). 
Needless to say, the two sets gradually fell out of favor as the influence of the 
communicative approach became more powerful in Vietnam in the late 1990s. 
During this period, the need for a uniform and communicative set of textbooks grew 
stronger and a new set of materials called English for Vietnam was produced with 
funding from an American education organization called the Business Alliance for 
Vietnamese Education (BAVE) (Nguyen and Crabbe 1999). The BAVE series
consisted of seven books for Grade 6 through to Grade 12. The series was tested out 
in a number of selected schools throughout the country but unfortunately, was never 
officially approved for classroom used by MOET. 
In 2002, therefore, MOET announced a new textbook project. The new textbooks 
were expected to incorporate the latest methodology in second language teaching and 
replace the two existing series of textbooks once completed (Hoang et al 2006). The 

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new textbooks for upper secondary school level comprised two sets. Set 1, 
unofficially called “Sách chu
ẩn” (i.e. ‘standard textbooks’), was intended for students 
pursuing Ban c
ơ bản (i.e. the non-specialization program) and Ban tự nhiên (i.e. 
specialization in sciences). Set 2, unofficially called “Sách nâng cao” (i.e. ‘advanced 
textbooks’), was intended for Ban xã h
ội (i.e. specialization in humanities). Each set 
comprised of three books, from English 10 to English 12, accompanied by respective 
student’s workbooks and teacher’s manuals.
The first drafts of this new series were completed in 2004 and began to be piloted in 
some selected schools across Vietnam in the same year. English 10 and English 11
were approved and officially introduced into schools by MOET in the academic years 
2006-2007 and 2007-2008, respectively. English 12 is being revised and will be 
implemented nationwide from the next academic year 2008-2009. 
As a teacher trainer and mentor to senior B.A TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign 
Language) students in their school-based teaching practicum, I have worked quite 
closely with the new textbooks. I have noticed that although the books have shown a 
great deal of improvement as compared with the old series of grammar-based 
textbooks, they also bear several limitations. These limitations may cause considerable 
difficulty for teachers who wish to teach in a communicative way. 
Firstly, the limitations lie in the seeming predominance of mechanical and meaningful 
practice and a corresponding inadequacy of communicative practice. They also lie in 
the unrealistic presentation and simplification of language use and the elimination of 

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many elements of genuine communication such as unpredictability and the need for 
use of communicative strategies. Especially, the introduction and practice of discrete 
grammatical points which do not serve the language functions taught in the units 
could have made the books more structurally oriented than their authors would have 
expected. The limitations of the new textbooks have motivated me to conduct this 
study. Based on the findings, I hope to propose some practical implications for both 
teachers and textbook authors in the process of adaptation and revision of the books.

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