English Language Education for Graduate Employability in Vietnam

This open access book examines the teaching and learning of English for employability in Vietnamese higher education. Its content is framed within one country to better examine the research issues within the influence of contextual factors. This book investigates how English can contribute to the development of students' employability capitals, particularly in the aspects of human capital, social capital, cultural capital, identity capital, and psychological capital. It presents employers' and employees’ perspectives of how and why English is increasingly important for career development. This book is a collection of discussions and viewpoints from teachers, students, and other stakeholders like employers, graduates, and course coordinators on current practices and their proposed improvements to prepare students for their future education, work and life. Based on empirical evidence, this book calls for repositioning English language education within the employability agenda to elevate its status and increase stakeholders' engagement. This book contributes to current debates on advancing the effectiveness of English language education in non-English speaking countries, as a response to internationalization and globalization.

Part 1: English as a power tool in a globalized world

1.       The emergence of English language education in non-English speaking Asian countries

2.       English language policy and the current context of English language education in Vietnam

3.       Employability capital: A theoretical framework

Part 2: Contribution of English language education to students’ employability capital

4.       English language education and students’ development of human capital

5.       English language education and students’ development of social capital

6.       English language education and students’ development of intercultural competence

7.       English language education and students’ development of personal attributes

8.       The influence of English language education on students’ development of identity

Part 3: Current situation of English language teaching and learning in Vietnam: Practices and challenges

9.       Stakeholders’ feedback on Vietnamese graduates’ English competence

10.    Teachers’ perception of the contribution of a General English language program to students’ employability development

11.    Teachers’ perception and practice of culture development in English language classes

12.    English as a language of instruction in Vietnamese universities: Practices and challenges

13.    The internet as a power tool to develop students’ English competence and employability

Part 4: Conclusion

Dr Tran Le Huu Nghia is a research fellow in work-integrated learning and graduate employability at the Australian National University’s College of Business and Economics. He received the Erasmus Mundus scholarship to complete the Master of Lifelong Learning: Policy and Management (2007-2009) provided by Aarhus University (Denmark), Bilbao University (Spain), and Institute of Education (the United Kingdom). Then as an Endeavour Postgraduate Awardee (2012-2016), he completed his Ph.D., with a focus on higher education studies, at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has produced more than 30 research outputs, including articles in high impact journals such as Higher Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, Teaching in Higher Education, and two books. His research interests include teaching and learning for employability, work-integrated learning, teacher education, international education, and teaching English as a second language.

Dr Ly Tran is a Professor in the School of Education, Deakin University, Australia. Her work focuses on the internationalisation of education, student mobilities, graduate employability, staff professional learning in international education and Vietnamese education. Ly has been awarded various fellowships, prizes and awards for her contribution to research in the fields of international education and student mobilities. She has been named as one of Vietnam’s 50 Most Influential Women 2019 by Forbes Vietnam (Research Category). She has more than 200 publications in different outlets and has won a range of national and international awards for her works. 

Dr Mai Ngo is a Senior Lecturer in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and Applied Linguistics at Flinders University, Australia. She was Dean of Foundation Studies Department from 2005 to 2009, and Director of the International Education Center in Hanoi University, Vietnam, in 2014 and 2015. She has been working actively as an English Language Teacher educator and a senior consultant in Vietnam’s nation-wide Foreign Language Education reform projects. Mai graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Education from the School of Education, the University of New South Wales, Australia, in 2014. She received the New South Wales Institute of Education Research’s Beth Southwell Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in October 2014. She also received the CAMTESOL Innovation Award in 2009. Her research interests include English language education reforms, English language teacher education innovation, English language teaching/learning for university success, and university governance.