Building a set of criteria to assess Vietnamese proficiency for foreigners

The project has two main tasks: developing a set of standards to assess the Vietnamese proficiency of international students and developing a set of questions to organize an online test to assess the Vietnamese proficiency of international students.

The expert group has implemented the project's tasks based on the 3-level, 6-level classification format of the European reference framework to develop assessment criteria; based on the common framework to ensure updating of international practices, requirements of language teaching science, but also suitable and satisfactory to the reality of Vietnamese language and Vietnamese language learning and teaching.

The Council for Acceptance of the project "Developing a set of criteria to assess Vietnamese proficiency of international students" (QG.TĐ. 13-17) was chaired by Prof. Dr. Vu Duc Nghieu (University of Social Sciences and Humanities).Photo: Huong Giang

The main results of the project include:

- Building theoretical and practical foundations for language proficiency testing, in general and Vietnamese in particular.

- Develop a set of standards for assessing Vietnamese language proficiency including 10 standards and 51 criteria.

- Build 24 sets of exam questions with 3600 different exam questions.

The project has received high praise from the council members and experts in the field of Linguistics. This is the first time a set of standards for assessing Vietnamese proficiency has been designed based on modern theory and practice of teaching Vietnamese to foreigners in Vietnam. Attached to the set of standards are 24 sets of original questions and a document guiding the assessment of Vietnamese proficiency of international students. This set of criteria can also be used as a basis for comparison in designing teaching programs and compiling Vietnamese textbooks in accordance with international standards. The set of questions for assessing Vietnamese proficiency of international students can also be used globally via the Internet.

Prof. Dr. Dinh Van Duc (University of Social Sciences and Humanities) - member of the Evaluation Council - commented: The topic is scientific, applicable and pioneering in the field of applied linguistics in the direction of language education in the area of ​​assessment and quality control of international students learning Vietnamese as a foreign language. This is an urgent research because we have been teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language for half a century and until now there is still no set of assessment standards like in other foreign languages.

Professor Dinh Van Duc also said that the success of the project lies first of all in the team of scientists participating in the project, all of whom are leading experts in linguistics, have extensive experience in teaching Vietnamese, and moreover, have been concerned, dedicated and cherished the project for a long time.

Also sharing the above views, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khang (Institute of Linguistics) commented: Vietnamese as a foreign language for foreigners has been taught for a long time, but for many reasons, including the reason that the demand for learning Vietnamese as a foreign language is not much compared to other languages ​​such as English, French, Chinese, etc., so far there has not been an international assessment framework. With this topic, for the first time, VNU in particular and the Vietnamese education sector in general have a set of standards for assessing Vietnamese proficiency for international students that is systematic, scientific and standard. This set will be the "original", the "foundation" for use, and through the process of use will be adjusted and perfected according to each specific stage of the development of Vietnamese.

Professor Nguyen Van Khang also emphasized the updating and modernity of the research results of the topic. The group of authors not only selectively and flexibly absorbs existing assessment standards in the world but also bases on the practical socio-linguistic context of Vietnamese to build a set of Vietnamese assessment standards that are both comprehensive, detailed and specific.

The project received excellent evaluation results from the Acceptance Council. The Council also recommended that the research products should be quickly applied to the practice of testing and assessing Vietnamese proficiency for international students through the VITEST software system (implemented by the Center for Information Technology Applications, Institute of Information Technology, VNU), applied globally. Along with that, it is necessary to carry out intellectual property registration activities for the above research results to protect the rights of the group of authors of the project.