Failed to graduate due to debt of foreign language certificate

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, the Vietnamese foreign language proficiency framework (VSTEP certificate) is applied to consider output for university-level students issued under Decision No. 1982/QD-TTg in 2016.

Accordingly, university students need to achieve English proficiency at level 3/6, equivalent to level B1 according to the European reference framework. The B1 certificate is the minimum standard that most higher education institutions apply to assess foreign language output requirements.

In addition, many universities have different adjustments to foreign language output standards; including the application of international certificates such as IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL and other language certificates. Normally, students must achieve an IELTS score of 4.5 or a TOEIC score of 450 or higher. Students can choose one of these certificates or take an internal exam at the school to qualify for graduation.

It is worth noting that although this is a strict regulation of schools, every year, the number of students who do not graduate on time due to debt in foreign language certificates is not rare, even quite common.

Nguyen Hoang Anh, a former student of the University of Transport, said he graduated 3 years late because he did not study and take the foreign language certificate exam on time. “I planned to study for the certificate at the beginning of my 5th year of university, but then I got busy and lazy so I could not carry out that plan. In the end, I could not graduate on the same time as my friends,” Hoang Anh said.

Dao Nguyen Khanh Linh (4th year student, majoring in Public Finance Management, Academy of Finance) stated the reality: currently there is still a large number of students who are afraid of and poor at foreign languages, including Linh.

“I have no talent for foreign languages. On my high school graduation exam, I was lucky to get a 7 in English. When I went to university, foreign languages ​​were still the subject I feared the most. While my friends were studying and taking certification exams, I was busy working part-time to earn money and gain practical experience. This year is my final year, my study schedule is quite dense with specialized knowledge and my internship is busy, so I have even less time to study foreign languages. I am very worried because there is a risk of not graduating on time,” Khanh Linh said.

If Hoang Anh and Khanh Linh started learning English late and did not have time to review, many students, even though they started learning English from the beginning of the course, would still not achieve the desired results and would not meet the foreign language output standards required by the school.

In that situation, Nguyen Tran Thao Phuong (4th year student, Academy of Journalism and Communication) confided: “I started studying foreign languages, aiming to take the certificate exam from the beginning of the third year, but after 2 exams, my results were still not as expected. Currently, I continue to study with the hope that I can achieve better results in the next exam.”

Need to have a suitable and effective learning roadmap and method

Looking back at their foreign language learning process, many students have a fairly good understanding of the reasons for their sluggishness with foreign language certificates. There are three basic reasons: inappropriate learning methods; starting to learn foreign languages ​​too late and not having enough determination and roadmap to achieve the goal.

As a student who achieved IELTS 7.5 in her third year, Pham Khanh Ngoc (National Economics University) said: “I determined my wishes before starting to study. I see that many students do not know what level they are at or what skills they should focus on at this stage, leading to wasting more time and effort.

With her experience in each exam, Khanh Ngoc said: “I combine thorough knowledge preparation and effective exam strategy practice. I need to master the exam structure and get familiar with each common question type, and practice skills regularly.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Nhung, English language lecturer at the Academy of Journalism and Communication, said: some students have difficulty learning pronunciation or listening skills, so they do not meet the output requirements for foreign language certificates, leading to having to retake the exam many times, prolonging the graduation time.

According to MSc. Hong Nhung, to have good English proficiency, students need to have a specific, detailed, and appropriate English review schedule and know how to accurately assess their current foreign language proficiency.

“There are many difficulties in learning a foreign language, but before starting to learn, students should have specific goals; have a learning orientation that suits them through extra classes or self-study. What is more important is the right learning attitude, correctly identifying the importance of foreign languages ​​for future work and life; at the same time, they should seriously study foreign languages ​​every day, starting from preschool and high school because learning and taking English exams requires a long process of practice and accumulation…”, said Ms. Hong Nhung.