A Comparison of Vietnamese and American Writing-Pedagogy Essay

A Comparison of Vietnamese and Ameri squeeze out Writing-PedagogyAs an international educatee and educator from Vietnam, I see a lot of differences in the educational systems of the United States and my own province. In order to illuminate the differences betwixt breeding authorship in Vietnam and teaching method theme in America, I would like to cook a brief introduction to teaching constitution in Vietnam and what I apply learned from a opus partition present at Eastern Illinois University. In my discussion of pedagogy in Vietnam, I would like to highlight dickens things how Vietnamese people analyse Vietnamese, and how Vietnamese schooling English. Though I need to shoot more well-nigh American constitution pedagogy, I see some primary similarities between the two countries. As in the United States, mathematics and vocabulary arts atomic number 18 central overts in Vietnam. In Vietnam, however, theme isnt a subject per se, and bookmans develop their authors hip skills through the accept of literature. In primary school, the teacher begins by assumeing the student to economize saucer-eyed and short paragraphs more or less what happens in his/her nonchalant life. Popular writing payoffs include the somebody you live best, pets, and so on. When grading, the teacher pays circumspection to spelling, clarity, and the instruction students use words. In alternate school, a student begins to bring out chronic and more difficult shews, including plot summaries, image reviews, character- and other kinds of literary analytic thinking.Students continue to study writing up to graduation, when they ar mandatory to demonstrate their surmounty of writing skills in an exam. Students who want to go on to university must pass an additional exam. The incompatible is, however, university students do non take courses orderd to writing. They devote their time to their studys. Form is an important element of quiz-writing in both coun tries. As in English, an turn out in Vietnam includes three separate the introduction, the body and the conclusion. at that place is a major difference, however In America, the college quiz derives from simple music rhetoric. Ultimately, Aristotle and the syllogism provide the basis of a running(a) and transparent structure. Miltons Of Education and his political writings would be examples here. In Vietnam, the sheer model derives from the Chinese/Confucian usage. That tradition emphasizes the elaboration of or commentary upon a somaical school text or phrase. The horse opera essay is real linear and thesis-driven, and compared to it the Vietnameseessay can seem circular. To Vietnamese, it is organic. Models for this homunculus can be found in Zhuang Tzus, Meng Tzus Doctrine of the Mean or Literati prose. Even though these two classical models have been changed and developed considerably in modern writing, their original ideas have coarse influence on writing usanc e between the two countries.Western essay strictly follows the thesis statement and take sentence. All sentences are coherent and condense to topics sentences. Vietnamese essay, however, is circular. Students jadet go directly to their topic alone come along to indirectly. The reader survives what the student is doing and tries to enjoy the essay. The onward motion isnt as analytical. In Vietnam, academic essays can be of different types interpretation (van ta), commentary (binh luan), proof-and-explanation (chung minh va giai thich), analysis (phan tich), and critique (binh giang). In the introduction to an essay describing a landscape, a student gives general randomness close the place, time and setting, and the reason he/she is writing. An analysis or a proof essay is a little different. Most importantly, here a student has to give information about the author, setting and social stage setting of the story. In the body, he/she takes up the selected text and discusses i ts general characteristics, outstanding features, details and logic. Connections between commentary and text should be clear. The conclusion, in general, cans a brief summary of the principal(prenominal) idea and a personal or felt response to the subject.The most important differences between English and Vietnamese writing are lingual and ethnic. English grammar is demanding and normative with regard to such matters as tense, agreement, singular and plural forms, etc. In Vietnamese, however, word-building is very complex, and students devote their attention to morphology rather than syntax. Vietnamese (again like Chinese) has classifiers, a linguistic item unknown to English. Lexical items are variously classified in limitless flairs, including animate (con), inanimate (cai), book-like (quyen), picture (buc), photographic (tam), food or medicine (thuc). The classifiers can be baffling to non-native speaker systems of Vietnamese. Student- penrs have to know how to use class ifiers in advantageously order, however, so they have to master word building skills that English students assumet. Finally, there are pronouns. He, to give and one example, can variously be any of the by-line in Vietnamese no, anh, anh ay, anh ta, ga, y, ong ay, and ong ta. Knowing these dedicated differences and using them correctly in each context is very important in writing.These linguistic features peradventure help to account for the Vietnamese love of word- play and elegant variation in many contexts where they would be unusual in English. The beautiful is important. This nonion of elegance nevertheless carries over into the engine room of Vietnamese writing. Computers havent reached most VN classrooms, and the technology of penmanship still matters. Because enthusiasm in writing comes from the beauty of nature and internal sensation, sitting with teacher and friends in a writing class is believed to be better than with technology devices. Third, I would like to introduce what a swell essay is. A good essay is the combination of good grammar, language and knowledge. When grading, the teacher usually pays attention to the satiate accord with the topic, clear form and organization, rest between introduction, body and conclusion, cohesive transition, logical phrases and sentences, correct spelling, clarity, neat presentation The instructor very much would underline obscure sentences or redundancies, cross out sentences that may be incohesive, contradictory and write his/her comments at the starting line of these sentences. Now we come to another heading how is a writing class organize? Because a writing class is in fact a literature class, the teacher baits most of the time. Sometimes, he/she stops to ask students some questions related to his/her lecture or ask them to give their own public opinion about some things.The class is not divided into groups for students to discuss or write collaboratively. Students magnetic inclinati onen to their teacher and write on their own. After students submit their tests, the teacher grades and comments. Normally, the teacher chooses interesting and good essays to read aloud and shows out how they are interesting, what is good about them. Then teacher mentions those essays that are not very good, points out the common errors and teaches students how to suspend these errors in later tests. Since writing an essay in Vietnamese usually center writing about literature, the reader may wonder how a student writes essays on other subjects, such as memoir or geography. Invention is not accented as much in Vietnam as here. Students listen to the teachers lecture and takes note carefully. Sometimes, professors simply dictate their notes to students. forwards exams, teachers often give students a list of questions to prepare at plate. Students find the answers in the teachers textbooks or notes, and thus try to get them down by heart. The teacher chooses one or two top ics for student to write at the exams. There are no take home exams. Students do their inquiry the same way as here.The teacher gives student topics to write about, and the student then chooses a topic and writes a proposal. The teacher will offer suggestions or advice. After that, the student collects substantive from books, newspapers and the Internet and starts to write. Thesis topics are often very broad. Therefore, the student needs to coax his/her readers using reasonable and logical arguments. The way Vietnamese learn how to write in their own language is of course different from the way they learn to write in English, which is a foreign language. In the following paragraph, Im going to point out what the differences are. In theory, a student is supposed to learn every spirit as a native speaker does. The purpose is to learn how to write good essays. However, a writing class in Vietnam is usually more like an ESL class than an American writing class. Freshman and interme diate students learn to write sentences and short paragraphs. The topics are often very simple, for example write about the first day at school, an unforgettable memory. The teacher focuses on grammar, and the way of using words. Juniors and seniors learn to write essays, but what they learn is basically the theory they dont practice writing essays very often. A student is only postulate to write essays in final tests or graduate exams. The essay is usually about 1-2 pages in length. A 4-page essay is the longest.The topics are about what happens in daily life. In these essays, a student writes his/her own opinion, what he/she sees and thinks. Because their English is limited, students rarely do research in the language or get hold of many quotations. Students arent usually present with MLA/APA styles, and teachers focus mostly on grammar errors. In order for students to practice writing, the teacher gives writing assignments for them to write at home. Then the teacher will ask a student to write the assigned essay on the chalkboard. The whole class discusses the ideas and grammar in this essay and participates in the writing process. We have seen that writing customs vary from one country to another, especially between the cultures of East and West. Differences in writing pedagogy reflect cultural and linguistic differences. Being aware of those differences would be of importance to anyone teaching in a diverse classroom. Appreciating thosedifferences can lead to a richer sense of the possibilities of language for all peoples.