English in the primary classroom in Vietnam: students’ lived experiences and their social and policy implications

Abstract

Although the teaching of English as a foreign language in primary schools has emerged as one of the major language-in-education policy decisions, students’ perspectives on primary English have received very little research attention. Drawing on data from a larger study, this paper depicts primary school students’ lived experiences in the English classroom in Vietnam. The methodological framework of the study draws upon the Mosaic approach that integrates multimodality and ethnographic methods. The framework helps to connect school and home factors with language policy issues and provides access to the complexity, relevance and maturity of students’ perspectives. Insights from the study reveal tensions between policy expectations and classroom realities, which undermine the government's policy goals of developing citizens’ English proficiency for participation in a globalised economy. Moreover, the hidden trend towards the privatisation of the public sector English education has consequences for social justice, as students from more modest family backgrounds are unable to utilise resources and learning opportunities to which their counterparts from wealthier families have easy access.