Vietnam is a country that has a combination of 54 ethnic groups namely: Kinh, Tay, Thai, Muong, Dao, H'mong, Khmu, Lao, Khme. etc. In the past, all of these ethnic groups took part in protecting and saving the nation together and now they are contributing their time and efforts to the nation construction. However, in some parts of the country where these ethnic minorities are living the standard of living is still bellow the wanted level. In order to help them improve their living conditions a lot of things, especially investments in education and economy are needed.
Dien Bien is a small, remote and mountainous province but there are 24 ethnic minorities living here. At Dien Bien's Upper Secondary schools, most pupils belong to different ethnic minorities. Each ethnic group has its own language, and Vietnamese is their second, and at the same time, official language. English is really their second foreign language. We think you can imagine the difficulties the pupils have to face and overcome.
In secondary schools in Vietnam today, English is one of the compulsory subjects. Many suggested solutions have been put into practice to improve the teaching and learning of English so far, but there still exist a lot of inappropriate things for ethnic English learners.
Vietnam is in the open-door period, moreover, from the November 2006, Vietnam has become a member of WTO, and so, English is getting more and more essential to Vietnamese people. As for ethnic English learners in Dien Bien, English is also considered to be an important subject, but because of poor conditions for teaching and learning, together with extremely weak basic common knowledge of the learners, difficulties seem to multiply. To facilitate the English learners in Dien Bien Upper - Secondary School, I have chosen Teachers' Typical Difficulties in Teaching Vocabulary to Upper Secondary School Students of Ethnic Minority and Suggestions for Solution as the subject matter of the study.
