A Comparative Study Of Foreign Language Education Policies Between China And Vietnam In The Reform And Opening-up Context

China and Vietnam started their reform and opening-up policies in 1978 and 1986 respectively.Over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up,China has transformed from a “native” country to an “international” country,which means that people’s need for foreign languages is expanding from limited areas to a wider space.Over the past 30 years of reform and opening-up,Vietnam has continuously extended international exchanges and successively become a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN)and the World Trade Organization(WTO),which indicates that the demand of foreign language talents keeps growing.In the reform and opening-up context,foreign language education policies made and implemented by China and Vietnam have respective merits and demerits.Through combing foreign language education policies in China and Vietnam in the different periods of their reform and opening-up,the study compares the similarities and differences of Chinese and Vietnamese foreign language education policies with the intention to seek mutual inspirations for China and Vietnam to make foreign language education policies.Therefore,by using literature method and comparative method,this thesis endeavors to sort out and analyze foreign language education policies of China and Vietnam in the reform and opening-up context on the basis of language planning theory put forward by Cooper(1989)and language education policy theory formulated by Kaplan & Baldauf(2005).It tries to answer the following questions:(1)What kind of historical background influences foreign language education policies in China and Vietnam?(2)What are the main contents and characteristics of foreign language education policies in China and Vietnam?(3)What are the major similarities and differences in foreign language education policies between China and Vietnam?It is found that,(1)Foreign language education policies of China and Vietnam were constrained by their specific political,economic and cultural factors.Compared with Vietnam,China was more willing to promote foreign language development by taking part in international affairs and putting forward initiatives consistent with global development.(2)Both China and Vietnam basically follow the top-down model in their foreign language education policy making.However,the implementation in schools has not fully met the objectives of macro policy.Compared with Vietnam,China lacked a medium and long-term foreign language education policy,while Vietnam enacted a long-term plan in its National Foreign Language Project 2020,but the expected goals still have not been achieved.(3)There are differences and similarities between Chinese and Vietnamese foreign language education policies in terms of access policy,personnel policy,methods and materials policy,and evaluation policy.Differences:(1)China chooses more foreign languages to teach in schools than Vietnam does.(2)Vietnam has developed English Teacher Competency Framework,while China has not a common standard for foreign language teacher development.(3)Different from Vietnam’s reliance on the western teaching methods,textbooks,evaluation contents and standards,China takes more of its local situation into consideration.Similarities: Both China and Vietnam need to consider the regional differences of teaching conditions,the cohesion of curriculum between basic education and higher education and the negative effects of test-oriented education in their foreign language education policy making.