While conveying his congratulations and best wishes to the newspaper and its staff, he praised Nhan Dan’s contribution to the capital city during its construction and development. He said that Hanoi is in a new phase of development aimed at building an increasingly prosperous, civilised and modern capital city. In addition to opportunities and advantages, Hanoi is facing a range of difficulties and challenges such as rapid population growth, inadequate infrastructure development, traffic congestion and environmental pollution, Hai said, adding that the challenges require significant efforts from the city and the sharing and companionship from the press. He urged Nhan Dan to constantly innovate contents and methods of information delivering, while promoting the strength of a multimedia press agency to attract the audiences. Member of the Party Central Committee and Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan newspaper Thuan Huu expressed his sincere thanks to the good wishes of the Hanoi Party … [Read more...]
Qatar newspapers highlight Vietnam’s role as ASEAN chair
Qatar’s Gulf Times quoted ASEAN secretary Surin Pitsuwan as saying that Vietnam has made great contributions to the development of the bloc. In an interview with the Qatar Tribune, Vietnamese Ambassador to Qatar, Phung The Long, said ASEAN embassies have enhanced the bloc’s image in Qatar by organising the first ASEAN table-tennis championship, an ASEAN film-exchange, a food and drink festival, a tree-planting festival for a greener Doha, and other activities to promote the ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council relationship. Brunei, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam have already opened their embassies in Qatar. In early August, Qatar sent its Ambassadors to ASEAN member countries. Other English newspapers also ran illustrated articles about the activities of ASEAN diplomats in the capital, Doha. … [Read more...]
Vietnam to get tough on English
Education and training departments in many provinces and cities have drawn up plans to improve the quality of local English teachers through further training after discovering that most achieved very low scores on international English tests. Teachers attend preparatory conference before taking a required English test The Ministry of Education and Training's National Foreign Language Project requires, by 2020, primary and junior high school teachers of English to score at least 525 in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or 5.5 on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). Teachers at high school and higher must achieve 575 or 6.5. Surveys in many provinces and cities have found that few achieve these scores. In southern An Giang Province, for instance, out of 1,500 English teachers at all levels, only 165 managed to achieve them. In neighbouring Tien Giang Province, only 10 percent out of more than 900 … [Read more...]
Ministry to scrutinise English qualification of language teachers
VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training will carry out an English teacher quality assessment at colleges and universities nationwide in September. Teachers are required to have 90 points or more on the TOEFL iBT, 7.0 in IELTS, 850 for all four English communication skills in TOEIC tests or have passed the Cambridge CAE, CPE. Lecturers for specialised courses must have 70 points or more on the TOEFL iBT, 5.5 points of IELTS, level four certificates issued by the Ministry of Education and Training or have passed the Cambridge CAE, CPE. On September 30, 2008, the Prime Minister issued Resolution 1400 on foreign language teaching and learning during period of 2008-2020. Out of 3,650 foreign language teachers who were assessed in Hanoi, HCM City and the provinces of An Giang and Tien Giang, only 454 teachers met the requirements. The Deputy Minister of Education and Training, Nguyen Vinh Hien, said that although the resolution was issued in 2008, they only … [Read more...]
Vietnam among easiest countries for English speakers to visit
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Vietnam was ranked 29th among Countries with the Top English Language Skills in the EF English Proficiency Index, compiled by EF Education First, a global language training company. Countries on the list are the easiest for English speakers to visit, according to the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper. More than half (53.81 per cent) of Vietnam’s population can speak English, behind just two regional countries: Singapore with 61.08 per cent and Malaysia with 60.3 per cent. In Asia, Vietnam followed only four countries: Singapore, Malaysia, India with 58.21 per cent, and South Korea with 54.52 per cent. Vietnam has also been assessed as one of the world’s cheapest holiday destinations by Australian media website news.com.au. “Buzzing street life, great food and stunning scenery; despite its rise in popularity over the last few years, Vietnam is still beautiful and still super-cheap,” the website wrote. It … [Read more...]
Ministry intervenes over English Premier League broadcasting rights rivalry
The Ministry of Communications and Information has stepped into the on-going fight over exclusive broadcasting rights for English Premiere League in an attempt to halt a bidding war. Le Dinh Cuong, deputy president of the Vietnam Association of Pay TV, said with VTCNews that a rise in broadcasting rights was unavoidable. In the UK, Sky and BT paid £5.1 billion, while China paid USD160 million. The league's broadcasting rights are based on the league's popularity and potential audience in each country. VTV bought the broadcasting rights for the 2002 to 2004 season for USD900,000 and paid USD2 million for 2004 to 2007 seasons. The seasons from 2007 to 2010 was bought by VTC at USD4 million. K+ then paid USD19 million to buy the broadcasting right for 2010 to the 2013 season and agreed to pay USD40 million for the broadcasting rights for seasons from 2013 to … [Read more...]
City pulls plug on plan to change English curriculum
The HCM City People's Committee has asked the Department of Education and Training to re-evaluate its pilot Cambridge programme and not to replace it with an unapproved integrated English teaching curriculum. A foreign language class in HCM City's Le Hong Phong Highschool. In a communication to the department on Saturday, the committee told the department to review the Cambridge programme, which was approved by the Ministry of Education and Training and piloted at city public schools for over four years, and explain why it suspended it. The department has to identify the programme's strengths and weaknesses and how it has affected the interests of students and parents and report back this month. Since 2009-10 the Cambridge programme has been … [Read more...]
Party’s newspapers need redesign
Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong visits the Communist Review in Ha Noi. — VNA/VNS Photo Tri Dung HA NOI — Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has asked two publications published by the Communist Party to improve their content and layout in order to make them more attractive and persuasive. Speaking with editorial staff of Nhan Dan (The People) newspaper and the Tap chi Cong san (Communist Review), Trong noted increasing challenges facing the news industry today. "It is important to figure out what would make a Party newspaper attractive, especially when the intellectual standards and demands of readers are increasing and hostile groups' plots are more and more cunning and sophisticated," Trong said. He asked the two newspapers to boost coverage of Party and State policies, carry more information to reflect realities, and to bring the heart beat of life into each article. "Together with updating news, the newspapers must have critical Op Eds, which are … [Read more...]
Nhan Dan online newspaper honoured
HA NOI (VNS) — Nhan Dan (People) Online Newspaper received the third-class Labour Order from the Party and State this morning, tying in with the 15th anniversary of the paper's inception. Over the past fifteen years, the newspaper has developed strongly in terms of organisation, layout and content. Besides the Vietnamese version, the outlet has also developed Chinese and English versions, with plans to launch French and Russian versions in the near future. The newspaper covers a wide range of both national and international issues, including politics, the economy, education, national defence, security, science and technology. It has contributed to disseminating Party and State policies and laws while reflecting people's daily lives. It became the country's first online newspaper on June 21, 1998. — VNS … [Read more...]
Fatherland online newspaper launched
HA NOI — The Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism yesterday launched the online newspaper, To Quoc (Fatherland) at www.toquoc.gov.vn or www.toquoc.vn, for domestic and international news. The online newspaper was developed from a five-year online news page. Culture, tourism and sport columns will inform the public of the ministry's activities as well as management work. According to the newspaper's Editor-in-Chief, Mai Linh, there are about 90,000 visitors per week. The pages are updated three times per day, providing information related to politics, the economy, society, culture and tourism. The newspaper also has an English language version. VNS … [Read more...]