VietTESOL International Convention 2026

At its core, the purpose of EFL for the vast majority of students is to facilitate interaction with non-Vietnamese visitors who are customers in a hospitality, tourism or commercial environment or to smooth the obstacles involved routine business dealings or travel overseas. For a much smaller but growing number, however, it is also to foster collaborative projects, develop skills that are not taught at a professional level in Vietnam, or develop and sustain friendships and social relationships. While these higher-level types of interactions do necessitate greater fluency and language facility, they are not dependent on any specific body of knowledge in English other than some specialized vocabulary. Under an English as a Second Language educational structure, however, a sizeable number of students will be expected to take classes in subjects such as maths, science and other subjects taught in English. Training instructors to teach these subjects in English will, of course, involve a transformation of the teacher-training system that is certain to prove challenging. In the meantime, however, existing CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) courses that are part of an EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) program can give insights into how to implement the curriculum overhaul that will take place in the next decade. The presenter will share his long experience implementing CLIL-based instruction within modified EMI environments in both Japan and Vietnam using a Task-Based Learning approach that can help smooth the transition to ESL.